13 Recording Janacek Operas in Vienna and World Fame – For Them and Him

And it was during Sir Charles’ tenure as Music Director of the English National Opera that his passionate championship of the operas of Janacek achieved such a high level of intercontinental acclaim that he was invited to record several of them in a groundbreaking project that belatedly gave him worldwide fame. With star casts and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, his masterly recordings of these works led to their adoption in the main repertoire of top opera houses and brought Sir Charles a long overdue celebrity status, as the General Director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Anthony Freud tells us.

INTERVIEW 2-9: ANTHONY FREUD

MUSIC 6: KATYA

As the curtain goes up on the second scene of Katya Kabanova, Katya married to a weak and feeble man who doesn’t love her, says to Varvara “if only we had wings and could fly away like birds do.” She tells her how happy and carefree her childhood was. Now all that has changed.

MUSIC 6: CONTD

The opening of Act I Scene 2 of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova with Elisabeth Soderstrom singing Katya, Libuše Márová as Varvara and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Charles Mackerras was the conductor.