The Makropulos Affair poster of the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa
The legendary Swiss director Christoph Marthaler directs Janacek's The Makropulos Affair at the National Opera in Warsaw. The modernist opera receives its premiere production in Poland, with a cast of Polish and international peformers
National Opera director Waldemar Dąbrowski comments:
One of the most significant pieces of European modernism takes on a contemporary character in the production. The staging is evocative of science-fiction, and I am conviced that it is one the highlights of our whole season.
Dąbrowski emphasises that following the Warsaw production of The Makropulous Affair, the National Opera intends to continue and develop its collaboration with the prestigious Salzburg Festival. Dąbrowski first saw Marthaler's piece at the festival, and was eager to bring it to Polish audiences. The journalist Jacek Merczyński of the newspaper Rzeczpospolita writes that we are bound to find "the best of Marthaler’s theatrical style":
(..) the 61-year-old Swiss has transformed the novel into a court drama. The heroine of the piece plays the accused, as she ruthlessly pursues the goal of staying forever young. The director proves that this is an ever-relevant issue as old age is rejected by contemporay society. Only the young are attractive.
Emilia Marty, the current Elina Makropulos, sings "I have lived for 337 years and I was born in 1585". Capek has set the action of the libretto in 1922, and his opera draws upon the Faustian myth of an eternal life. Elina or Emilia arrives at the conclusion that life without death is devoid of meaning.
The stage designer Anna Viebrock reveals the inspiration behind her work on the sets:
Most of my ideas derive from the Parisian Palace of Justice. But I was always trying to create a world in which a story could unfold. We are telling the viewers about a process that takes places over a period of 300 years and deals with numerous court documents. I thought that the Palace of Justice is the perfect place for this story.
Joachin Rathke, the director’s collaborator, adds
We begin the traveling in time and different ways of perceiving it from the encounter of two women who discuss death and eternal life as they share a smoke. One of them is young, in the beginning of her journey, the other is approaching her life’s end. We confront these two perspectives and life experiences.
The conductor for the performance, Gerd Schaller, compares Janacek's unique compositional style with that of Karol Szymanowski, Poland's ditinct musical modernist. Schaller adds that the libretto is demanding for the singers, and the orchestra, requiring nonstop attentiveness and counting, with frequent changes in metre.
The performance was created in cooperation with the Salzburg festival.
The Makropulos Affair
By Leos Janacek
Directed by Christoph Malthaler
Conducted by Gerd Schaller
Stage design and costumes by Anna Viebrock
Dramaturgy by Malte Ubenauf
Cast: Eva Johansson, Raymond Very, Jan Vacik, Anna Bernacka, Jason Howard, Rafał Bartmiński, Marek Gasztecki, Mieczysław Milun, Joanna Cortes, Paweł Wunder, Sasha Rau and Lidia Majerczak.
The performance premieres on the 17th of February 2013, at the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa (Grand Theatre National Opera), with subsequent performances scheduled for the 19th, 21st and 23rd of February.
Christoph Marthaler is one of Switzerland’s most significant theatre directors. He has cooperated with the Theater Basel as well as the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Between 2000 and 2004 he was the director of Schauspielhaus Zurich, and during this time the stage was twice honoured with the Theatre of the Year title. His most recent productions are the +-0 project created in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and the Glaube Liebe Hoffnung performance in Berlin.
Till Briegleb’s biography of the director on http://www.goethe.de states that:
Christoph Marthaler’s production style is so different from any other directorial handwriting that he has acquired hardly any imitators in fifteen years. Just like other exceptional artists – such as Einar Schleef, Frank Castorf or Christoph Schlingensief – Marthaler’s theatrical art is the expression of such an unmistakable personality that it fails as a model and teaching opinion. Anyone who uses Marthaler’s methods immediately becomes guilty of plagiarism.
Editor: SRS
Source: PAP, Rzeczpospolita, press release