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A Real Thriller
Makropoulos in the Lagoon,
with GIUSEPPE PENNISI
As reported in Summer and Fall 2011 on the basis of a new Salzburg-Warsaw production [Faith and the Devil, 22 August 2011] and of a Florence staging [A Rather Special Interpretation, 29 October 2011], Vec Makropoulos is one of Janácek's last works. Premiered in 1922 in Prague, it is based on a then successful play by Karel Capec which appears like a thriller: the gradual uncovering of the mystery surrounding the opera singer Emilia Marty, who is in possession of detailed information about facts and documents long past (and of critical importance in a major trial which has lasted over one hundred years). She exerts a strange fascination on everyone coming into contact with her. In three acts, we discover that due to a strange set of events and a potion -- the Vec Makropoulos -- she has been living for three hundred and twenty seven years...
Copyright © 25 March 2013
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
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