Setting the classic Russian opera Kátya Kabanová in 1950s America is a risk - but one its star says works like crazy. Russian-American soprano Dina Kuznetsova is performing here for the first time, but she's played the role several times - including in the Seattle premiere of this interpretation of Janácek's opera earlier this year. Kátya Kabanová tells of a passionate young woman stifled by a conservative society. Lynn Freeman asks Dina what updating operas in this way adds to them. The New Zealand Opera production of Kátya Kabanová opens in Auckland on the 16th of September before heading to Wellington.