Janos Gereben writes of a "Katya Kabanova" production:

>The Teutonic water-deconstruction screwing up the finale is something
>up with which we should not put.  Instead of Kat'a throwing herself
>into water churning somewhere off stage, there is a big, shallow puddle
>representing the Volga (was the dramaturge thinking of drought in
>Mother Russia and what Brecht would have done with that?) and poor,
>dear Mattila is made to roll around on top of an inch of water by way of
>drowning. If any killing is to be done, the director would be a prime
>candidate for that.
>
>The chorus (bald and in black trench coats, of course) then WALKS
>through the Volga to downstage, while a blue-clad HazMat team puts
>Mattila in a stainless-steel container (dramaturge's thrift for gurney-cum-
>casket?) and guess what almost gets lost meanwhile - ITMS: It's the music,
>stupid!
>
>True, there is a simple solution.  When I go back to the third
>performance, I'll keep my eyes closed at the end.

This sort of penny-in-the-slot criticism of "modern" opera production
(which has been around since Bayreuth over half a century ago) is horribly
familiar, and many of us are doubtless amused by it. Brecht and the German
directors are always good for a cheap laugh, after all. Just occasionally,
however, I find myself moved to wonder just precisely what such critics
would have us theatre people do?

For diehard opera-buffs the mantra is "follow the script". Well, why not?
A half-glance at Janacek's actual stage directions will reveal that the
primly decorous idea of sending the heroine offstage to drown goes flatly
against what Janacek wrote, verbally and musically ("Katya crosses her
hands and jumps into the river".)

All needlessly upsetting, raw and realistic, maybe, with all that pretty
music around: but in this case it sounds as if the castigated German stage
director was prepared to take the bull by the horns and attempt to follow
the letter as well as the spirit of Janacek's text.

This composer was certainly not interested in Good Taste or Decorum. The
ending of "Katya Kabanova" is in its nature, musically and dramatically,
nasty, brutish and short. The Buffs might demur, but it sounds as if the
theatre director at least had grasped that basic point.

For myself, whenever I'm tempted to close my eyes in the theatre, I try
consciously to open my mind instead. It's usually worth the effort.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"