For Elina Makropoulos, this dream becomes reality in an involuntary and paradoxical experience. Long ago, her alchemist father tested an elixir of life on her. Since then, she has traveled throughout Europe, constantly changing her identity and her lover. Now 337 years old, an opera singer known as Emilia Marty, she finds herself embroiled in an inheritance dispute. While her beauty and undiminished voice still captivate, her sole objective is to rediscover the formula for the elixir, whose effects are threatening to fade. But is eternal life truly an enviable destiny?

The Makropoulos Affair

Lille Opera

A contemporary and topical opera for our time: When US President Richard Nixon lands on Chinese soil one foggy February morning in 1972, the world holds its collective breath. After decades of silence, the rival powers are starting to come together. A momentous instant in diplomatic history and a superlative media spectacle unfolds as cameras and microphones follow Nixon and Mao Zedong constantly. American composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman have taken original, historical documents to create a poppy narration of modern myths and spectacular imagery politics. This minimalist music opera follows the protocol of the state visit like a satirically exaggerated TV documentary, and shows figures between larger-than-life self-presentation and boundless self-deception. Musical theatre collective Hauen und Stechen, known for its anarchic directorial bent, focuses amidst the rush of images on the propagandistic aspect of the summit and provides furious insight into the power plays of the 20th century.

Nixon in China

Deutsche Oper Berlin

In Mao’s China, French diplomat René Gallimard is enchanted by the captivating opera singer Song Liling. The two begin a passionate affair that lasts twenty years, until they are arrested. In court, it is revealed that all this time, unbeknown to Gallimard, Song was not only a man in drag, but also a Chinese spy who passed on information about the war in Vietnam.

Robin Adams

Events

Upcoming events

10 - 30 Jan, 2027

Nixon in China · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Apr 20 - May 4, 2027

M. Butterfly · La Monnaie / De Munt

Past events

5 - 16 Feb, 2026

The Makropoulos Affair · Opéra de Lille

Future and recently performed repertoire

Richard Nixon in Nixon in China by Adams

Deutsche Oper Berlin

René Gallimard in M. Butterfly by Ruo

La Monnaie / De Munt

Jaroslav Prus in The Makropulos Affair by Janáček

Opéra de Lille

About

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