Without a climax to speak of

At the end of this performance of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova, a lady sitting nearby said to her companion, “We must thank the composer for having written a short bore; most others write very long ones.” I am tempted to agree, but I cannot possibly go that far. This opera has some enjoyable moments, most of which happen in the pit. It is, however, a slow piece in which very little happens. In fact, from the very first act you know that Katya is going to fall for a man, you know who the man is and you guess that either she is going to be killed by her husband or else she will end up committing suicide. What does the libretto do to entertain the audience in the 100 hundred minutes between the first and the last bar? Not much, really, and that is why I say that all the wonders come from the pit, especially if Sir Charles Mackerras is in…