The Makropulos Affair – Festival Theatre
As ever, Scottish Opera delivers sumptuous sets, great lighting, singers who can act, and a wonderful orchestra that never disappoints, but this English rendition of The Makropulos Affair, by Leoš Janàček jarred my senses with its modern-day, casual lexicon. Words, such as F*ck somehow don’t marry comfortably with the impassioned, heightened music and traditional, elegant, and beautiful costumes.
It was, no doubt, a deliberate choice.
Creating a grating cacophonous lexicon - the use of brutal Viking words rather than those of Latin derivatives gives the opera an earthy groundedness - and caused me a headache. I wanted to lose my sense of reality for an hour or two. I was denied the option. Single syllables and short sentences (translation by David Pountney) reflect the sheer en...