European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Leoš Janáček's The Makropulos Case Staged at The Metropolitan Opera

Mar. 28, 2012

Leoš Janáček's <em>The Makropulos Case</em> Staged at The Metropolitan Opera

Legendary Czech conductor Jaroslav Vogel called Leoš Janáček's quick witted opera The Makropulos Case, “one of the most unreal and yet at the same time most shattering dramas of human existence.” Fortunately for New York, a new production by veteran stage director Elijah Moshinsky opens at The Metropolitan Opera on April 27. Last staged at the Met in 2006, this production of Janáček's investigation of immortality stars soprano Karita Mattila as the enigmatic stage diva, Emilia Marty. The production also features Kurt Streit as Albert Gregor, Johan Reuter as Jaroslav Prus, and Tom Fox as Dr. Kolenaty with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the MET Orchestra. 

Based on Karel Čapek's 1922 play by the same name,  Janáček composed The Makropulos Case between 1923 and 1925. With a libretto by the composer, Makropulos was premiered in 1926 by the National Theatre in Brno, conducted by Frantiek Neumann and directed by Ota Zitek. The work was not performed in the US until its staging by the San Francisco Opera in 1966. With this work as his penultimate opera,  Janáček considered The House of the Dead a continuation of Makropulos in its themes of immortal despair. 

Janáček conveys the torment of Emilia Marty with a captivating and mercurial score, avoiding thematic development and extended arias. Instead he provides rapid motifs, cool interjections and changes of style before warming to the glorious and deserved lyricism of the final scene.

In an interview with Adolf Vesel following the work's premiere, Janáček said of the opera:

It was a job that caused me some pain and I had to re-write the libretto three times. Right from the start it gripped me: I felt rather proud of the third act: it flows-there is a feeling of suspense. I spent nearly a year writing this act, but I finally felt that I got what I wanted.

The Makropulos Case will receive five performances at the MET on April 27, May 1, 5, 8, and 11.

For more information on the Metropolitan Opera production, visit www.metoperafamily.org.

For more information on Janáček, visit his composer profile at www.universaledition.com.

Leoš Janáček
The Makropulos Case (1925)
opera in three acts
libretto by the composer
for dramatic soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, 3 tenors, operetta tenor, baritone, bass-baritone, bass, actor and TTBB chorus
instrumentation: 4.3.3.3-4.4.3.1-timp.perc-hp-str off stage: 2hn.2tp.timp
120'

News