As the slinky, fur-stole-and-sunglasses-wearing Emilia Marty, or Elina Makropulos, Ellian McGregor, Eugenia Montez, indeed any number of E.M.s as we come to see, Amanda Roocroft is spell-binding. She’s such an amoral and sexually voracious woman, she seems a thoroughly modern character but we see that she needs all of her bewitching and beguiling power to sway the minds of the men who constantly surround her and make demands. Onstage for nearly the entire show, Roocroft effortlessly drives the show with her performance and is truly heartbreaking at the show’s impassioned dénouement.
Of the men who figure in her life however briefly, Andrew Shore’s disbelieving Kolenatý and Ashley Holland’s sordid Prus were both vocally superb Other bright spots came from Laura Mitchell’s attention-seeking drama queen Kristina and Ryland Davies’ Count Hauk-Šendorf with a brilliantly comical but strangely pivotal moment in Act II. Only Peter Hoare’s Gregor disappointed slightly with an underpowered vocal performance which sometimes got lost in the music.
Charles Edwards’ steel and glass art deco-inspired set is highly arresting and adds a haughty atmosphere to proceedings. It serves as all three main locations: Kolenatý’s chambers, backstage at an opera house and then E.M.’s hotel room but with its striking glass wall which allows for some stunning lighting design by Adam Silverman and the stylised processions of the male chorus, it makes for an effective staging. If anything, Alden could have gone a little further with the stylisation: I particularly liked the scribblings on the blackboard and felt aspects like this could have been utilised more.
Sir Richard Armstrong conducted with élan, picking his way carefully through the intriguing but often challenging score culminating in the wonderfully emotional climax where the music mellows into something quite beautiful as the truth about E.M. emerges and she acknowledges her fate. At just over 2 hours in length, this is a quirky little delight that should appeal to both fans of opera and newcomers so is well worth a punt: hurry though, there’s only 5 performances in total.
Running time: 2 hours
Programme cost: £5
Booking until 5th October, but only 5 performances scheduled in total