In this text John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents on the composition of "Kat'a Kabanova" and its early performances. Key interpretations of the opera range from one by the opera's German translator to Janacek's first biographer Max Brod.

K t'a Kabanov is both the first Jan cek opera to have been performed in Britain and the one which has received the most productions in Britain and the USA. In this book John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents (most of them translated from Czech for the first time) on the opera's composition and its early performances. A group of key interpretations of the opera ranges from one by the opera's German translator and Jan cek's first biographer Max Brod to specially commissioned essays by Wilfrid Mellers and by David Pountney, producer of the highly successful Welsh National Opera/Scottish Opera Jan cek cycle.