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- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph
MusicJonathan Miller’s staging of Jan’s Kát’a Kabanová at the Metropolitan Opera was ghastly in 1991; revived in 1999, it seems even less excusable. Miller has the reverse of the Midas touch, dependably turning what he touches into dross. I have bemoaned his Pelléas (see “Dumbing down Debussy” in the May 1995 New Criterion); his Kát’a is no less appalling. His current highly-praised Met Nozze di Figaro may be a shade more circumspect, but surely does not deserve the critical raves it has garnered. Though mostly well sung and decently played, directorially this Kát’a is as effective a bomb as any anarchist ever detonated. The primal disaster is the décor of Robert Israel, obviously worked out in cahoots with the director. The parallel love scene for the Kát’a-Boris and Varvara-Kudrjas’ couples should be set ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 17 March 1999, on page 54 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/kabanov-simon-2904
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