What: Věc Makropulos — Leoš Janáček
Where: Vienna State Opera
When: Saturday, 6 December, 19:00 (local time)
How to watch: Wiener Staatsoper Play (free streaming with registration)
Cast: Marlis Petersen (Emilia Marty), Pavel Černoch (Albert Gregor), Lukas Schmidt (Vítek), Alma Neuhaus (Krista), Bo Skovhus (Jaroslav Prus), Carlos Osuna (Janek Prus), Wolfgang Bankl (Dr. Kolenaty)
Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Director: Peter Stein
Set design: Ferdinand Wögerbauer
Costumes: Annamaria Heinreich
Lighting: Joachim Barth
Make-up: Cecile Kretschmar
Leoš Janáček’s late masterpiece Věc Makropulos returns to the Vienna State Opera in a production that explores the psychological and temporal labyrinths of the composer’s most enigmatic heroine. Based on Karel Čapek’s play, the opera follows Emilia Marty, a woman who has lived for more than three centuries after taking a life-prolonging elixir devised for Emperor Rudolf II. What appears at first as a tale of immortality gradually becomes a meditation on memory, identity, and the loneliness of a life without end.
Director Peter Stein highlights this tension between past and present through a staging that deliberately intertwines different time levels. The most striking gesture comes in the second act: a mirrored view from the stage into the auditorium of the Vienna State Opera, an ironic wink at the opera house itself and a visual reminder that Emilia’s long past can no longer anchor her in the world around her.
Janáček’s score, one of his final works, moves away from the strong folkloric writing of the earlier operas. Instead, he builds the drama with intricate rhythms, shifting textures, and harmonies that push the limits of late-Romantic tonality without abandoning it entirely. The orchestra — under the direction of Tomáš Hanus — becomes a psychological narrator, revealing the inner lives of the characters and intensifying the opera’s restless emotional atmosphere. As in all of Janáček’s stage works, the drama ultimately lifts toward a cathartic, hymn-like conclusion.
This performance brings together a distinguished cast led by Marlis Petersen as Emilia Marty, alongside Pavel Černoch, Bo Skovhus, and a strong ensemble of house soloists. For audiences interested in Janáček, psychological opera, or major European productions available online, this free stream from Vienna offers an excellent opportunity.
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