Maybe The Tempest is one of Ostrovsky’s most sophisticated and detailed work. The opera, Katya Kabanova, which is Leoš Janáček’s, less well-known work in Hungary (It has not been played for decades) but otherwise it is his best one. That Zoltán Balázs hardly put the two works together in Bárka Theatre is more than a coincidence.

Moreover. The Tempest seems to be a prosaic print to the opera, as the director composes some scenes especially to the musical version. The musical work is much darker, it has ghostly atmosphere, so the coproduction of Maladype and Bárka Theatre tries to reach it too: the actions, which are lightened in an unusual way by head machines which are moving in front of the viewers on rails, happen in front of gloomy, painted storm clouds, on a cliff – in which there are regular slits, similar to tombs of cliff, are hidden. In the centre of Janáček’s opera we cannot find the traditional cliché of love triangle, but the relationship which is between the husband’s mother and the husband or the wife. Zoltán Balázs’ direction emphasises it: for Marfa Ignatievna’s confused identity Feklusha, the pilgrim woman, who is treated clearly mad, keeps a mirror. The drama forms a clean and punctual picture, where with the leading role Kátya Tompos debuts in Bárka Theatre. Here we can see for the first time Zalán Makranczi too, who has been tempted lately from Kecskemét.

Orsi Kónya, szinhaz.hu, 2007

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)