BBC PROMS: Janáček’s The Makropulous Affair - Karita Mattila ★★★★★

 Eva Štĕrbová, Jan Vacík, Gustáv Beláček, Kartia Mattila, Aleš Briscein and Svatopluk Sem perform under the direction of Jiří Bĕlohlávek at the BBC Proms 2016. (BBC/Chris Christodoulou.)

If you had the chance to live for three centuries would you take it? This is one of the questions you may ask yourself after an evening of witnessing the suffering of Emilia Marty - a beautiful opera singer with a world of knowledge that goes far beyond our time. Leoš Janáček’s (1854 – 1928) Makropulous Affair was performed semi-staged last night at the Royal Albert Hall, after more than 20 years of absence from the BBC Proms, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with its former conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, an all-round talented cast of Czech soloists and the radiant Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila.

Mattila is no stranger to Janáček as she has performed many lead roles from the Czech composer’s work, which includes Katya Kabanova, Jenůfa and most recently the Kostelnička – one of opera’s villainous evildoers – at the Royal Festival Hall with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra this April. 

Soprano Karita Mattila performs in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair at the BBC Proms 2016. (BBC/Chris Christodoulou.)

Originally influenced by the play written by Karel Čapek, the opera begins in 1922 at Dr. Kolenatý’s office where a clerk Vítek is fussing over papers for a century-long family case, where Baron Josef Ferdinand Prus’s estate is challenged by Ferdinand Gregor. Yet, what may seem a like a legal battle between families swiftly turns into a puzzling mystery over Emilia Marty’s acute knowledge of Baron Prus and Ferdinand Gregor. 

By the final act, in a tense and dramatic dialectic, where words and ravishing music is revealed, we discover that Emilia Marty is, in fact, Elina Makropulos - the daughter of Emperor Rudolf’s Greek physician who was ordered to test his elixir of life to his 16-year-old daughter. Through the generations, she has changed her name with the same initials EM – Eugenia Montez, Elsa Muller, Ekaterina Myshkin, Ellian MacGregor – and finally, she finds solace in her last days aged 337.

When Matilla comes to town it is always worth trying to wangle a ticket to see her - last night was no exception. Her empowering stage presence in a dashing red dress captured the complexity and seductive qualities of Emilia's character. Singing as the revered opera singer, she laughed and humoured those around her including young, aspiring singer Kristina. She also titillated and enticed many men such as Janek, Prus’s son, who commits suicide for her love, and Prus himself who she leaves feeling cold. Mattila’s voice, however, is bold and animated as ever. She manages to hold out and show the best part of her vocal prowess until the very last scenes where all is revealed, and her identity is exposed. 

Tenor Aleš Briscein performs in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair at the BBC Proms 2016. (BBC/Chris Christodoulou.)

The cast also deserves credit for giving a grand picture of this contemporary opera, which takes place in various locations; a lawyer’s office, the backstage of a theatre and a hotel room. Given the lack of scene changes or props provided, the extraordinary cast succeeded in bringing the story to life. Aleš Briscein (Gregor), Gustáv Beláček (Dr Kolenatý) and Svatopluk Sem (Baron Jaroslav Prus) sang with richness and depth as Emilia’s pawns in the legal battle over a will that had more than they had ever dreamed of. With smaller roles sung by Jan Vacík (Vítek), Aleš Voráček (Janek), Jan Ježek (Hauk-Šendorf), Jana Hrochová Wallingerová (Chambermaid) and Jiří Klecker (Stage Technician) as part of the comedy features, which balance out the opera seria at the opera's conclusion. This leaves soprano Eva Štěrbová as the curious and sweet-tone Kristina, the benchmark to Emilia’s beauty.  

Jiří Bĕlohlávek conducts the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair at the BBC Proms 2016. (BBC/Chris Christodoulou.)

There is no question that Jiří Bělohlávek felt at home with the BBC Symphony Orchestra - his knowledge of Janáček’s music is visible through and through. There is a cinematic and dream-like quality about Janacek’s score, here, that is spellbinding and easy to love. The BBC Symphony Orchestra was also superb. They seemed comfortable with the challenges of the music particularly since there isn’t a specific aria to remember, yet this is the charm of the opera. The final scene is the most devastating and ardent, where the stage went green and Emilia sang with her last breath. 

If you would like more information about the BBC Proms and future events, please click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms

ENO: Jenůfa ★★★★

Photo by Donald Cooper.

Despite how musically rich and sensitive Janáček’s opera Jenůfa is, its grotesque storyline, which includes the murdering of a child, is not. It captures a sample of small-town life in Moravian Slovakia during the mid-1850s, which first influenced Gabriela Preissová to write Její Pastorkyňa (“The Stepdaughter”), which inspired Janáček to compose his opera.

Photo by Alistair Muir

It took 10 years to complete and during that time Janáček’s work took an autobiographical turn as his daughter, also caught up in an unhappy affair and a similar fate to Jenůfa, died from typhoid fever. Janáček takes us to a sound world of grief, shame and guilt in a society where tragic consequences, prejudice, and hypocrisy took place for a woman who bore a child out of wedlock – it was considered a mortal sin.

Janáček’s musical achievements are often neglected, unfortunately, and underperformed, though in the last couple of years there has been a surge of his great works programmed at some the UK’s top concert halls; The Cunning Little Vixen and Jenůfa is one of them. David Alden’s 2006 production, of the latter, has returned to the London Coliseum in luminous and triumphant form.

Photo by Donald Cooper

Back then the production won an Olivier Award for Best New Production, and if the 2006 production was as good as it was last night, then much credit is due to the intense focus of its outlandish characters, dramatic and minimal staging as well as its refined and impassioned melodies.

An empty run-down Eastern bloc of a factory yard, plucked from a Communist system, is how Charles Edwards’ displays Janáček’s Moravian Slovakian community. Jon Morrell presents simple costumes for the cast, drawn from a closed off society, while the lyrical score is welded together by the unwavering prowess of the ENO chorus and the finesse of the ENO’s most recent music director, accomplished Mark Wigglesworth. (He resigned from the position over controversial disputes with ENO’s senior management this year.) 

Stage and vocal performances from the lead cast are courageous too. Nicky Spence provides a vivid picture of Jenůfa’s lover Steva; he’s an obnoxious alcoholic and reckless womanizer, yet he sings with a rich and fluid voice. His brash character is so superficial that he leaves Jenůfa after his jealous half-brother Laca, sung impressively by Peter Hoare, slashes her cheek with a knife, out of frustrated love for her.

Laura Wilde offers a true and honest depiction of a troubled woman starved of love, childless, and left bitterly disillusioned. Although Wilde’s vocal lines brim with empathy and sentimental force as Jenůfa, it isn’t as powerful as I would like. Hopefully, this is insight based on the first night only and her performance enhances as the production goes on.

Michaela Martens, on the other hand, took charge of the stage as Jenůfa’s paranoid and concerned stepmother Kostelnicka – her voice is utterly spellbinding. Her character is the catalyst in the opera, and Martens encapsulates the trauma of a mother consumed by a community controlled by religious and social pressures.

Rarely performed, David Alden’s production at the ENO is worth the watch even if it is almost three hours long. Any die hard Janáček fan should make it their mission to see it.

This review was first published on CultureVulture.net.

This production is showing until the 8th of July. Click here to see the ENO website and purchase tickets. 

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— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) June 23, 2016