David Alden follows his double Laurence Olivier Award-winning production of Janáček’s Jenůfa with a new staging of the Czech composer’s later lyrical masterpiece, Katya Kabanova.

A claustrophobically intense yet heart-rending study of sexual morality within a close-knit community, Katya Kabanova was inspired by Janáček’s erotic obsession with a younger married woman.

Stunning singing actress Patricia Racette makes her English National Opera debut as the passionate soul trapped in a loveless marriage, with Stuart Skelton – who played Peter Grimes in another Alden staging in 2009 – as the stranger who offers her a brief hope of happiness.

Janáček’s most lyrically emotional score is conducted by Mark Wigglesworth with an outstanding cast also featuring Susan Bickley, Clive Bayley, John Graham-Hall, Anna Grevelius and Alfie Boe.

Katya Kabanova is part of ENO’s rich history. The company became the first to stage one of Janáček’s operas in the UK when it presented the opera in Sadler’s Wells in 1951.

For more about Katya Kabanova at the London Coliseum, read the First Night Feature.

Learn more about London operas within the West End.