Karina Canellakis covert De zaak Makropulos

The pinnacle of the twentieth century

Although Leoš Janáček only started writing operas around fifty, his music-dramatic works are among the most important of the twentieth century. In his final period, he combined his classical experience with the influences of Moravian and Bohemian folk music and developed his special speech melody.

Sally Matthews as an ageless lady

The Makropulos Case, which premiered in 1926, is Janáček's penultimate opera. Soprano Sally Matthews plays the central character of Emilia Marty, the four-hundred-year-old lady who continues living in a new guise but now finally wants to die. The composer virtuoso interweaves her compelling story with a Kafkaesque court case, making it a unique opera.