Premiere US Premiere
Production Language Czech
Country of Origin England, United Kingdom
Description Opera in three acts based on the comic play by Karel Čapek. Sung in Czech with English surtitles.
Every summer, opera-lovers around the world dream of making a pilgrimage to Glyndebourne, where the lush Sussex countryside, world-class performances of operas ranging from the barouque period to the present day, and black tie al fresco dinners add up to the last word in operatic elegance. And for most, it remains a dream. This season though, BAM brings Glyndebourne to New York for its first-ever visit to the U.S. It's the festival at its most daring. Nikolaus Lehnhoff's acclaimed staging of Janáček's The Makropulos Case, one of the most important productions in the Janáček renaissance that has swept the opera world in recent years.
The legendary German soprano Anja Silja stars as diva Emilia Marty, who's in danger of losing her glamorous life -- literally. Her real name is Elena Makropulos and she's 337 years old, courtesy of a magic elixir. But her time is running out: unless she can locate the elixir's formula, she will die. Lehnhoff's incisive direction, David Atherton's passionate conducting (in his Glyndebourne debut), and Tobias Hoheisel's spectacular sets -- in perpetual, almost imperceptible motion -- will bring Janáček's sharp and angular score to stunning life. Providing a diamond-hard core to Makropulos is the extratordinary Anja Silja, dubbed by Opera "one of the most mesmerizing singer-actresses before the public today."
Identifier 2001s.00720
