The Makropulos Case

Synopsis

A young Cretan girl is given an elixir to extend her life by 300 years and spends the time becoming the greatest singer of all time. But along the way she passes the recipe of the elixir to a lover and now, in 1922, she's 337 years old and in court trying to recover the paper. In the end she wins, but decides not to take the potion but to die as without mortality life has ceased to have meaning.

Our Review:

9 November 2012

As the 100th anniversary of the legal case Gregor vs. Prus approaches an opera soprano, Emilia Marty (Ylva Kihlberg) reveals facts that might create a breakthrough. Marty is an enigma; she speaks as if she knew long-dead singers personally, her handwriting resembles that on ancient letters and she is obsessed by one document in particular.

The Makropulos Case is not a typical opera; at times it feels like a play with great background music. Composer Leos Janacek does not offer any big arias and there is little lyricism –emphasis is given to the narrative. Director Tom Cairns is sympathetic to this approach setting the opera in English and ensuring that the various elements all fit together. The opening scene, in which the legal case is spelt out, could easily become dull if not for the swirling strings and dramatic horns that help build the mood of intrigue and maintain audience interest. Both composer and director can be shameless – Act 11 ends with a...

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