About the Show

Katie Mitchell directs Janáček’s opera on immortality, sung by Ausrine Stundyte in Czech.

In The Makropulos Case, Emilia Marty—a famed opera singer—has lived for over 300 years, thanks to a mysterious life-extending elixir. When a legal dispute over an inheritance draws her into a battle for a vital document, her seemingly eternal life is laid bare. As she confronts the consequences of her unnatural longevity, Marty begins to yearn for release from the isolation and emotional detachment that centuries of life have caused.

This new Royal Opera production marks the company’s first-ever staging of Janáček’s enigmatic 1920s opera. Acclaimed director Katie Mitchell (Theodora, Lucia di Lammermoor) brings a contemporary lens to the story, examining the psychological cost of immortality. Lithuanian soprano Ausrine Stundyte returns to the Royal Opera House to perform the role of Emilia Marty, under the baton of Jakub Hrůša, Music Director of The Royal Opera.

The creative team includes Vicki Mortimer (set design), Sussie Juhlin-Wallén (costume design), and James Farncombe (lighting). Sung in Czech with English surtitles, this production highlights Janáček’s modernist score, characterized by rhythmic irregularity, sharp contrast, and his trademark “speech melodies,” which infuse the music with emotional immediacy and realism.

Critic Reviews (7)

"Mitchell’s use of multimedia is most effective with the projection of the photo album...There’s a lot going on with the demands of following the surtitles, the text messages"
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"We almost take it for granted that the quick-fire lines from the singers mesh with the orchestra; the timing is perfect. What a missed opportunity that the stage drama isn't up to it. "
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"Musical values are sky high, with the company’s Czech music director Jakub Hrůša inspiring the orchestra to their finest playing, allowing every bar to register with total conviction."
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"It’s an exhilarating evening; the opera world is going to miss Mitchell perhaps more than it realises."
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"It’s worth the effort, for Mitchell presents a convincing case for Janacek’s opera, aided by excellent performances... They make The Makropulos Case's belated Covent Garden premiere well worth the wait."
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"It’s difficult to be sure with the information overload inflicted on the audience... Nor does it help that the directorial blocking is so frankly amateurish."
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"If this is indeed Mitchell’s operatic swansong, she has ended a 30-year career with a show true both to her own feminist principles and to the messages of this extraordinary opera."
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