The fifth play in a BBC series of seven dramas that tell the stories behind the songs.
With Blythe Duff as Katerina and James
MacPherson as Sergei. Stephen Mulrine's dramatisation vividly brings to life Nikolai Leskov 's novel. In the provincial Russia of the Tsars,
Katerina Izmailova is bored.
The servants run the house and the grain business while her husband is away mending the mill. With no children to care for, she has nothing to do but "trim the icon lamps and listen to the sound of her own footsteps". Meanwhile, in the barn, Sergei - the tall and handsome farm bailiff - directs the weighing and packing of the grain.
Director Hamish Wilson
The next Operama production is Peter Grimes : Radio 4. 2 January