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“Janacek: The Makropulos Case - Taken from a play by...”

★★★★☆

written by roontoh on 22/09/2004

Janacek: The Makropulos Case - Taken from a play by Karel Capek, who gave the world the term "robot" in his classic "R.U.R.," this is perhaps the first "science fiction" opera, though more accurately like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "Night Gallery," a single fantastic premise mined of all its considerable human repercussions. Jan cek's libretto follows the original play closely, presenting a kind of mystery story about a strangely compelling woman who knows far more than she realistically should about a centuries-old legal battle over a hereditary fortune.

On these terms alone, this work is heads above most other operas. Unfortunately, this DVD offers a performance with as many minuses as plusses. The peculiar unit set, though baffling in the way of so many modernist works, is nonetheless highly effective in its symbolic manner and certainly holds the eye. The costuming, rigorously true to the opera's original period (the 1920s) tends to look very much out of place, though, in this Bauhaus box dropped from minimalist heaven.

Anja Silja acts the part with great aplomb, her Emilia Marty an especially convincing font of icy hauteur. But she is far too old for the role. Practically every other character admires her youth and beauty then promptly falls in love with her, and it doesn't quite play. Nor is her voice suited to a role that wants more nuance than raw screaming. This, one of Jan cek's most difficult scores, gets much harder to swallow when it's hooted.

Lehnhoff's work also betrays its notorious variability here. Marty's various walks down the central ramp are well conceived, and a great deal of the action is simply efficient direction of traffic to and fro. But Marty's slithering over her theater sofa, her all-too-obvious moments of paralysis, and a number of glacial walks to and fro while declaiming, all these and more point to style over substance. As for Marty's Act 3 costume change straight from Visconti's "The Damned," the less said the better.

The DVD is clear, the too-sparse subtitles easily read, and chapter stops are convenient enough, though should be organized by act. No supplementals, of course.

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