Karita Mattila and Donald Runnicles' San Francisco Opera Orchestra
opened a much-anticipated run of run of Leos Janacek's "Kat'a Kabanova"
this afternoon with a stunning performance. Mattila, singing the role
for the first time, went from strength to strength, musically and
dramatically, creating an instantly memorable character, sure to take
its place among landmark performances over the decades.

Runnicles conducted a Charles Mackerras-class reading of this
shimmering, achingly beautiful score, the first violins - with their
major role - particularly outstanding. Besides playing beautifully, the
orchestra also achieved a degree of authenticity I have experienced only
in Prague or at performances under the direction of Mackerras, *the*
Janacek authority of our time. (San Francisco is using his revised
performing edition.)

It's so rare to hear an orchestra in the pit rise to the occasion like
this: it played both Janacek's "conversational" music and those short,
ravishing outbursts of melody with equal attention and excellence,
amazing consistency, a flawlessly pure sound.

However great Mattila's successes have been here and elsewhere where
I was fortunate enough to hear her, this performance was even beyond
those high expectations. Her voice filled the 3,000-seat auditorium
without effort, in quiet passages, in outcries, in passion, in sorrow.
Dramatically, she didn't "act," she became the complex, suffering,
paralyzed, neurotic, lost heroine of Ostrovsky's "The Storm," the play
on which the opera is based. Mattila even managed to make the third act
plausible, although this extended mad scene is a poor cousin to the
suspense, stark drama, compressed and brilliant musical theater of the
first two acts.

The Finnish soprano was in good company. Hanna Schwarz's Marfa, arguably
the most horrific mother-in-law in all music, was dramatically and
vocally picture-perfect. Richard Decker's Tichon, the mousy husband, was
fine, making Decker's emergency appearance as Otello a couple of weeks
ago all the more impressive, as he covered quite a range between
characters and vocal requirements.

Making their local debuts, Ute Doring, a mezzo from Berlin, as Varvara
was especially impressive; Dutch tenor Albert Bonnema (Boris, Kat'a's
lover) and Russian baritone Victor Chernomortsev (the merchant Dikoj)
were splendid.  Raymond Very and Philip Host made fine contributions,
Katia Escalera and Catherine Cook were the over-used maids, costumed in
a bizarre, attention-diverting way.

Except for a few habitual "Stuttgart touches," such as the maids'
appearance, umbrellas from Mars, and those damned floor-length trench
coats (no matter what the setting, the period, the occasion), Johannes
Schaaf's direction and Erich Wonder's impressive sets served the
production well - especially in allowing these wonderful musicians do
their magic. This is opera on order of San Francisco's joyful "Ariadne
auf Naxos" earlier in the season.

Janos Gereben/SF
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