The tenth edition of the international opera and music festival Janáček Brno 2026 will take place from 13 October to 17 November 2026. With Janáček’s complete operatic output at its heart, alongside a programme of concerts and accompanying events, the festival offers a unique celebration of the composer’s work on an international scale. As part of the festival preview, National Theatre Brno is presenting four operas by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) ahead of the festival itself. The series began on Saturday, 5 September, with The Makropulos Affair, which also opened Brno’s 2026/27 opera season.
The biennial festival has been championing Janáček’s artistic legacy internationally since 2004. Its core programme centres on his complete operatic output, complemented by concerts featuring Czech and international artists. This year’s programming is shaped by the motto “Roots”, reflecting the importance of both sacred and folk music in Janáček’s musical inspiration.
The Makropulos Affair is Janáček’s penultimate opera. Premiered in Brno in 1926, it was inspired by Karel Čapek’s (1890–1938) 1922 play of the same name. Thematically, it follows in many ways from ideas already explored in The Cunning Little Vixen: the endless cycle of animal and human life gives way here to questions of immortality and the meaning of life. David Radok originally staged this production for the Brno opera company in 2014 as a co-production with Göteborg Opera, and it has been revived for this year’s festival.
The three-act opera centres on Emilia Marty, an opera singer whose true identity is the immortal Elina Makropulos and who has a personal stake in the Gregor–Prus court case. Soprano Jana Šrejma Kačírková brought tremendous energy to the production in the role of this sharp-edged femme fatale. Both her acting and singing were outstanding; she contemptuously brushed aside the men who fell in love with her one after another, and did so with complete naturalness, as if swatting away flies. Albert Gregor and Jaroslav Prus, the parties to the inheritance dispute, were played by tenor Aleš Briscein and bass-baritone Svatopluk Sem. Both handled the tension on stage very convincingly. Their rivalry, both legal and romantic, drove them to emotional extremes, which they portrayed with great credibility. Baritone Jan Šťáva also deserves particular praise in the role of the lawyer Dr Kolenatý. His resonant voice and excellent diction brought the character fully to life. Ondřej Nekvasil’s sombre set and Zuzana Ježková’s authentic costumes worked particularly well with the story’s 1920s setting in the first act; in the acts that followed, both the visual world and the physical staging gradually moved further away from that realism.
In the second act, the supporting characters Kristina, a singer, and Janek, Jaroslav Prus’s son, came more clearly into focus. Mezzo-soprano Lada Bočková and tenor Vít Nosek sang in good rapport with the orchestra, although their acting came across as rather stiff. A particularly amusing moment came with the appearance of old Hauk, played by Alasdair Elliott, who broke through the production’s imaginary fourth wall and leapt from the audience onto the stage with playful energy.
In the final act, David Radok’s meticulous direction came to fruition in the bedroom scene, where he brought the central character’s inner struggle to the fore. The dramatic and psychological transformation of the male characters was reflected in their body language and in their interactions with Emilia, who reveals the truth and reaches the height of her grief and cynicism. The final image was highly theatrical: Emilia drew the curtain herself, finally taking her fate back into her own hands.
The orchestra and male chorus of the Janáček Opera, conducted by Robert Kružík, formed a perfectly cohesive musical whole. Janáček’s music, which grows out of the characters’ natural dialogue, demands a close connection between singers and orchestra; here, the two breathed as one. A particularly welcome surprise was the brass section, which produced repeated delicate pianissimos with crystalline clarity.
This century-old opera, with its timeless theme, still resonates today, and the Brno production explored it with both humour and depth.
Programme:
Leoš Janáček
The Makropulos Affair
Production team:
Conductor: Robert Kružík
Director: David Radok
Musical preparation: Marko Ivanović
Set design: Ondřej Nekvasil
Costume design: Zuzana Ježková
Lighting design: Torkel Blomkvist
Chorus master: Pavel Koňárek
Cast:
Emilia Marty – Jana Šrejma Kačírková
Albert Gregor – Aleš Briscein
Vítek, Kolenatý’s clerk – Petr Levíček
Kristina – Zdislava Bočková
Jaroslav Prus – Svatopluk Sem
Janek – Vít Nosek
Dr Kolenatý, a lawyer – Jan Šťáva
Stage Technician – David Szendiuch
Cleaning Woman – Jana Hrochová
Hauk-Šendorf – Alasdair Elliott
Maid – Alžběta Symerská
Saturday, 5 September 2026 at 7 pm, Janáček Theatre, Brno
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