The Makropulos Secret

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She is tired. She is world-weary. And she is utterly, eternally beautiful. Elina Makropulos has drifted through so many people’s lives, leaving a trail of broken hearts and unanswered questions. Who is this beguiling heroine, and what is her secret?

Cheryl Barker was deeply moving in Janáček’s Jenůfa. Now she makes her Australian role debut as a very different woman: the chilling, thrilling Elina Makropulos. With her comes Peter Wedd, who made such an impressive debut as Laca in Jenůfa, Catherine Carby as Kristina, Andrew Goodwin as Janek and the redoubtable John Pringle in the role of Jaroslav Prus.

Completing the award-winning team is brilliant director Neil Armfield and Opera Australia Music Director Richard Hickox, who will conduct Janáček’s elusive, lyrical score.

Performed in English with Surtitles
Running time: two hours and twenty minutes including one twenty-minute interval.

 

Synopsis

 

The alchemist Hieronymus Makropulos had provided the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf with an elixir, that was first to be tested on the alchemist's own daughter. She became ill and the alchemist was put to death, but later the elixir began to work. Emilia Marty has now lived some three hundred years, using different names, but always with the initials of her original name, Elina Makropulos.

 

The opera at first is concerned with a law-suit that has lasted a hundred years over the property left by Baron Prus, who had had an illegitimate son with Elian MacGregor. The first act opens in Dr Kolenatý's office, where the case between Albert Gregor and the present Baron Prus is being discussed. The clerk Vítek's daughter Kristina is an admirer of the great opera singer Emilia Marty, who is ushered in by Dr Kolenatý and shows considerable knowledge of the case, telling him where the former Baron Prus's will may be found. She is overheard by Albert Gregor, who is fascinated by her. The lawyer returns with the will and Emilia Marty is still interested in regaining certain Greek papers that must still be in the possession of the present Baron Prus.

 

In the theatre after Emilia Marty's performance, various admirers wait for her, including Kristina, with her lover Janek, and Gregor, who offers flowers and jewels to Marty. Old Hauk-Šendorf recalls times in Spain with Eugenia Montez, whom, it seems, Marty closely resembles. She persuades Prus to bring her the documents she wants and he tells her of his discovery of a birth registration for Elina Makropulos, the E. M., perhaps, of the letters in his possession.

 

In the third act Prus has made love to Marty, finding her cold and unresponsive. He gives her the paper she wants, the formula of the old alchemist's elixir. Prus is called out, to learn that his son Janek, infatuated with Marty, has killed himself. Hauk-Šendorf comes in, with his wife's jewels, proposing that he and Marty should elope to Spain. He is followed by Gregor, Dr Kolenaty. Vítek, Kristina, Prus and a doctor. A study of the handwriting on various documents has suggested to them that Marty is a forger. She confesses to them the truth, which they finally believe, and offers the formula to Kristina, who burns it, as Emilia Marty dies.

Artists

Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra

Conductor - Richard Hickox (until 18 Oct), Stephen Mould

Director - Neil Armfield

Set & Costume Designer - Carl Friedrich Oberle

Lighting Designer - Nigel Levings

Price information

Mon - Fri & Matinees	Premium	A	B	C
Full Price	$240.00	$190.00	$135.00	$99.00
Concession	$216.00	$155.00	$122.00	$89.00

 

Saturday Evening	Premium	A	B	C
Full Price	$246.00	$196.00	$140.00	$102.00
Concession	-	-	-	-

 

If you purchase tickets to three or more mainstage operas at the same time you may be eligible for a Choose Your Own package discount. The more operas you see, the more you save. For more information please contact Ticket Services on 61 2 9318 8200.

Dates and times

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