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Offer,Janáček: The Makropulos Case

Cheryl Barker (Emilia Marty - 'E.M.'), Robert Brubaker (Albert Gregor), John Graham-Hall (Vítek), Elena Xanthoudakis (Kristina), John Wegner (Baron Jaroslav Prus), Thomas Walker (Janek Prus), Neal Davies (Dr Kolenaty), Graeme Danby (Stage Hand), Graham Clark (Count Hauk-Šendorf)

English National...

Mackerras's reading, recorded in live performance, is slightly more expansive than his benchmark Vienna version… but the passionately lyrical urgency and sense of mystery drive it along just... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2007, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Jan 2007
Catalogue No: CHAN3138(2)
Label: Chandos
Series: Opera in English
Length: 2 hours 5 minutes

Gramophone Awards

2007

Finalist - Opera
Gramophone Magazine

April 2007

Editor's Choice

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Special offer ends: 22/05/2024

Janáček: The Makropulos Case, JW 1 / 10, Act I

Work length35:52

$8.45

$10.40

Sir Charles Mackerras, English National Opera, Robert Brubaker, John Graham-Hall, Cheryl Barker, Neal Davies, Elena Xanthoudakis, John Wegner

Prelude

Track length5:23

$1.05

$1.30

Oh dear, my goodness! (Vitek, Gregor)

Track length4:14

$1.05

$1.30

Daddy, she really is wonderful (Vitek, Gregor)

Track length1:55

$1.05

$1.30

Come this way please (Kolenaty, Kristina, Marty, Gregor)

Track length11:22

$2.15

$2.60

Gone at last! (Gregor, Marty)

Track length5:53

$1.05

$1.30

Emilia (Gregor, Marty)

Track length4:10

$1.05

$1.30

Found it! We've found it (Kolenaty, Marty, Gregor, Prus)

Track length2:55

$1.05

$1.30

Janáček: The Makropulos Case, JW 1 / 10, Act II

Work length30:24

$6.85

$8.45

Sir Charles Mackerras, English National Opera, John Wegner, Kathleen Wilkinson, Cheryl Barker, Graham Clark, Graeme Danby, Robert Brubaker, John Graham-Hall, Elena Xanthoudakis, Thomas Walker

Did you ever see such flowers? (Cleaner, Stage Hand, Prus)

Track length2:14

$1.05

$1.30

Janek, come on. No one here will see us (Kristina, Janek, Prus, Marty, Gregor, Vitek)

Track length6:34

$1.05

$1.30

Excuse me. Excuse me, may I… (Hauk, Marty, Prus)

Track length4:15

$1.05

$1.30

And the next! Is that the lot? (Marty, Vitek, Kristina, Janek, Prus, Gregor)

Track length1:33

$1.05

$1.30

Allow me to ask you this question (Prus, Marty)

Track length6:29

$1.05

$1.30

Is that you, Bertie? (Marty, Gregor, Cleaner, Janek, Prus)

Track length9:19

$1.60

$1.95

Janáček: The Makropulos Case, JW 1 / 10, Act III

Work length29:46

$5.85

$7.15

Sir Charles Mackerras, English National Opera, John Wegner, Cheryl Barker, Neal Davies, Susanna Tudor-Thomas, Robert Brubaker, Graham Clark, John Graham-Hall, Elena Xanthoudakis

Well? D'you hear me? (Marty, Prus, Chambermaid)

Track length5:30

$1.05

$1.30

Buenos dias Maxi! Why so early? (Marty, Hauk, Chambermaid, Kolenaty, Gregor)

Track length3:29

$1.05

$1.30

The seal and th'initials E.M. (Gregor, Vitek, Kolenaty, Prus, Marty, Kristina)

Track length12:19

$2.15

$2.60

Fetch the doctor! (Kolenaty, Marty, Gregor, Vitek, Prus, Kristina, Chorus)

Track length8:28

$1.60

$1.95

Janáček: Interview with Sir Charles Mackerras

Work length29:28

Album only

Sir Charles Mackerras

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"Sir Charles Mackerras conducts with the energy of a man possessed, confirming his status as the world’s preeminent Janácek interpreter and producing a blistering performance from the ENO orchestra… It’s the humanity

of Janácek’s music that finally triumphs in this magnificent, insightful production." The Guardian (review from the performance)

Live recording from the Coliseum

Artists

English National Opera Chorus & English National Opera Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras

Reviews

March 2007

Mackerras's reading, recorded in live performance, is slightly more expansive than his benchmark Vienna version… but the passionately lyrical urgency and sense of mystery drive it along just as compellingly. Cheryl Barker has the right kind of imperious soprano for Emilia Marty... This doesn't outclass Mackerras's Viennese set... But this is more vivid and dramatic, and its immediacy also offers English-speaking listeners easier access to this strange but rewarding masterpiece.

16th March 2007

Mackerras’s insight and grip are as powerful as ever, and the ENO Orchestra’s playing is remarkable...Cheryl Barker captures Emilia’s essential coldness, and the way she handles the final scenes is superb – you feel her desperation, and her imperious disdain...this performance certainly doesn’t suffer for being in English, and that in itself is quite an achievement.

2010

This is Mackerras's second recording. The first, in 1979, in his series of groundbreaking Janácek recordings for Decca (above), had the Vienna Philharmonic in radiant form accompanied a fine cast singing in Czech. It says much for the quality of the ENO Orchestra that for this new version in English the playing is equally polished, and often outshines that of the Viennese in its extra dramatic bite.
The recording brings an advantage, too – not as plushy as the Viennese version and with extra separation and clarity in a clearly focused acoustic.
Those qualities suit the work better, which, as Sir Charles points out, is 'a different kind of music': Janácek emphatically did not want to sound like Strauss or Puccini. That extra clarity and separation means the words are astonishingly clear.
Cheryl Barker rivals Elisabeth Söderström on Decca in dramatic bite and when in Act 3 Emilia is at last given a sustained solo, Barker is even more powerful, aptly abrasive and less moulded.
Though the American Robert Brubaker cannot quite match Peter Dvorsky on Decca, it is a focused, compelling performance. In some of the smaller roles the Czech singers had an advantage but their counterparts here run them close. On any count both versions have one marvelling at the score's emotional thrust and dramatic compulsion, original in every way and one of Janácek's supreme masterpieces.

Offer,Janáček: The Makropulos Case

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