FROM AROUND THE WORLD: MIAMI.(Review)

It took sixty years for Florida Grand Opera to make its belated first attempt at a work by a Czech composer, but the company's production of Leos Janacek's Kata Kabanova proved its first notable success in a rather wayward season.

The Andre Barbe-Bernard Uzan production was seen last fall in Montreal with the same conductor and much of the same cast. Barbe's abstract set design was a huge, sharply angled wooden parabola, its barren starkness underlining the stifling provincialism of the Russian town. In addition to presenting some stunning visuals, Donald Edmund Thomas's remarkable lighting effectively suggested the characters' interior motivations.

As the tragic heroine whose essential goodness proves her undoing, Oksana Krovytska made a touching, poignant figure. The Ukrainian soprano lacks the refulgent tone of some Slavic singers, and, while her voice is attractive, her fruity timbre was occasionally indistinct. For the most part, Krovytska conveyed the dramatic qualities with refined vocalism, and Kata's love duets and nostalgic reminiscences were sensitively rendered. At times on opening night (Feb. 7), Krovytska's performance seemed cautious and like a work in progress. Though her voice sounded richer in the more pleasing acoustic of the Broward Center at the closing performance (Feb. 24), greater passion and more sustained intensity in the final scene would have conveyed better the full scale of Kata's tragedy.

Janacek's three tenors rendered their varied assignments in fine style. As Tichon, Thomas Studebaker was superb, his rich voice and bearish frame making Kata's husband a more enigmatic and intriguing character than usual. Allan Glassman's sturdy portrayal of Kata's lover, Boris, was nicely understated, his cold-blooded dismissal of her icily subde. As Kudrjas and Varvara, the secondary, less complicated lovers, Richard Coxon and Marianne Bindig were exceptionally well matched. The English tenor sang his moonlight folk song in idiomatic style, and the mezzo-soprano charmingly conveyed Varvara's youthful spirit.

Kabanicha, Kata's sadistic, iron-corseted mother-in-law, was chillingly portrayed by Noella Huet, who painted the character's evil with fine control. As the conflicted bully Dikoj, who requires some co-dependent disciplining from Kabanicha, bass Mikhail Svetlov was the real thing, bringing a huge Slavic voice and compelling stage presence to the psychologically twisted merchant.

Uzan's direction was solid and unobtrusive, with a few lapses -- Tichon kissing his mother's feet provoked unintended laughter, and the suggestion that Kabanicha literally whips Dikoj into shape needed a lighter touch, while Kata's climactic dive into the Volga was more a gingerly stepping-down. Minor glitches included a noisy fog machine and projected tides that consistently ran a line or two ahead of the action.

Because of scheduling conflicts, the Florida Philharmonic was unable to play these performances, and conductor Stewart Robertson was forced to assemble an orchestra of area freelancers. As it turned out, the pick-up band's enthusiastic playing provided one of the most successful elements of the evening. If there was a lack of polish at times, the rough edges served to complement this ...