Hot on the heels of Victorian Opera’s 2026 season announcement, in which popular, bankable operas are noticeably absent, the company dares to offer a rarity in Australia: a Leoš Janáček opera, in the original Czech. Katya Kabanova is a tragedy, with no arias or choruses; it’s not one for the masses.

What appeals is the bold, beautiful score, conducted for this lamentably short two-performance season by Alexander Briger, who inherited the Janáček expertise of his uncle, Sir Charles Mackerras.

That’s a coup for Victorian Opera, which has also struck gold with the powerful and refreshingly new cinematic approach of this production directed by Heather Fairbairn.

It’s an ambitious project, but the all-Australian, mostly young cast and the also youthful Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) Orchestra are equal to the challenge.

Desiree Frahn and Andrew Goodwin in Victorian Opera’s Katya Kabanova. Photo © Jeff Busby

Premiering in the Czech city of Brno in 1921, Katya Kabanova is set in a small Russian town where the title character feels trapped by her marriage and community’s expectations. Her husband, Tichon, is ruled by his domineering mother, Kabanicha, who is cruel to Katya.

Her foster sister, Varvara, is Katya’s only comfort. When Varvara goes to see her lover, Kudrjaš, she suggests Katya finally meet the man she secretly loves: Boris, who is under the thumb of his uncle, Dikoj. Though Boris returns Katya’s love, she is torn between duty and happiness, and her psychological disintegration escalates.

Desiree Frahn and Andrew Goodwin in Victorian Opera’s Katya Kabanova. Photo © Jeff Busby

This production begins as if we are watching a film, with opening credits projected on a screen downstage as the overture plays, before Video Designer Robert Brown’s black-and-white, impressionistic scene foreshadows the opera’s climax.

The screen flies up, revealing Savanna Wegman’s simple set that’s symbolic of Katya’s contrasting circumstances and desires: ugly wire fencing shrouded in flimsy plastic, and plants from tufts of grass to trees. The fencing is reconfigured a few times during the operas 100 minutes, forming various locations from ruined building to pier.

There’s also Niklas Pajanti’s similarly contrasting lighting and Wegman’s costumes (a curious mix of Soviet and contemporary drab for the most part), but most striking of all is the black-and-white video projected larger than life on an upstage screen throughout.

It’s almost entirely live, shot on stage with two cameras. Assistant Director Ben Sheen’s steadicam cinematography is extraordinary. He captures the performers’ facial expressions – including the anguished looks of Desiree Frahn’s Katya reflected in the stage’s glossy black surface, which represents a fateful river.

Emily Edmonds, Antoinette Halloran, Michael Petruccelli and Desiree Frahn. Photo © Jeff Busby

Among other poetic details are close-ups of gleaming rosary beads, while live editing takes us further into Katya’s mind with 1960s Czech New Wave cinema-inspired techniques: red washes during moments of desire, for example, and increasingly layered and fragmented imagery that reflects Katya’s deteriorating mental state.

Frahn (seen in last year’s Eucalyptus) conveys her character’s intense emotions with admirable restraint as an actor, and with a soprano that remains strong, agile and pure, though she’s almost constantly on stage.

Antoinette Halloran nearly steals the show as Kabanicha, a nasty piece of work conjured with unforgiving poise, gestures, looks and an icy soprano.

Andrew Goodwin plays Boris with boy-next-door sincerity and a pleasing tenor, while Michael Petruccelli reins in his powerful tenor as the weak-willed Tichon. Yet another tenor, Douglas Kelly, is an appealing Kudrjaš.

There’s some luxury casting: Emily Edmonds’s expressiveness and rounded soprano notes makes her Varvara consistently delightful, and bass-baritone Adrian Tamburini leaves us wishing for more than his small role of grumpy Dikoj. There’s also a 16-strong chorus though we rarely hear them.

Conquering Janáček’s complex score with apparent ease, The ANAM Orchestra is urgent one moment, beguiling the next. Best known as the Australian World Orchestra’s founder and director, Briger masterfully guides the players through difficult rhythms and draws out the music’s emotional nuance.

Lovers of Janáček should not miss the second and final performance of Katya Kabanova. Anyone else with even a passing interest in opera should get along to revel in this composer’s unlikely, electric charms, and experience Victorian Opera’s visually compelling, psychologically revealing cine-opera staging.

Katya Kabanova is at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne, until 16 October.