Opera Australia presents The Makropulos Secret at the Sydney Opera House

For me, this role challenges any preconceptions of an operatic diva. She is a true original. - Cheryl Barker

She is tired. She is world-weary. And she is utterly, eternally beautiful.

The beguiling heroine of Janácek's penultimate opera is a vivid portrait of Kamila Stösslova, the woman he was obsessed with for ten long years. Clever, manipulative, coquettish and, ultimately, tragic, this mysterious woman has drifted through so many people's lives, leaving a trail of broken hearts and unanswered questions. Meanwhile, her quest for a three-hundred-year-old prize grows ever more urgent. Who is she, and what is her secret?

Cheryl Barker was devastating in Neil Armfield's production of Jenufa in 2006. She now returns to make her Australian role debut as the chilling, thrilling Elina Makropulos. Joining her as Albert Gregor comes Peter Wedd, who made such an impressive debut as Laca in Jenufa, Catherine Carby as Kristina, Andrew Goodwin as Janek and the redoubtable John Pringle in the role of Jaroslav Prus. Completing the award winning team is Opera Australia's Music Director Richard Hickox, who will conduct Janácek's elusive, lyrical score.

Schedule Details Departs:

• Tuesday 7 October, 2008 at 7:30pm
• Saturday 11 October, 2008 at 1:00pm
• Wednesday 15 October, 2008 at 7:30pm
• Tuesday 21 October, 2008 at 7:30pm
• Friday 24 October, 2008 at 7:30pm

Departure Point: The Sydney Opera House is located at Bennelong Point, on Sydney Harbour. The Opera Theatre can be reached from the Concourse (44 steps). Departure Time: Please refer to Departure Dates. Itinerary:

The alchemist Hieronymus Makropulos had provided the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf with an elixir, that was first to be tested on the alchemist's own daughter. She became ill and the alchemist was put to death, but later the elixir began to work. Emilia Marty has now lived some three hundred years, using different names, but always with the initials of her original name, Elina Makropulos.

The opera at first is concerned with a law-suit that has lasted a hundred years over the property left by Baron Prus, who had had an illegitimate son with Elian MacGregor. The first act opens in Dr Kolenatý's office, where the case between Albert Gregor and the present Baron Prus is being discussed. The clerk Vítek's daughter Kristina is an admirer of the great opera singer Emilia Marty, who is ushered in by Dr Kolenatý and shows considerable knowledge of the case, telling him where the former Baron Prus's will may be found. She is overheard by Albert Gregor, who is fascinated by her. The lawyer returns with the will and Emilia Marty is still interested in regaining certain Greek papers that must still be in the possession of the present Baron Prus.

In the theatre after Emilia Marty's performance, various admirers wait for her, including Kristina, with her lover Janek, and Gregor, who offers flowers and jewels to Marty. Old Hauk-Šendorf recalls times in Spain with Eugenia Montez, whom, it seems, Marty closely resembles. She persuades Prus to bring her the documents she wants and he tells her of his discovery of a birth registration for Elina Makropulos, the E. M., perhaps, of the letters in his possession.

In the third act Prus has made love to Marty, finding her cold and unresponsive. He gives her the paper she wants, the formula of the old alchemist's elixir. Prus is called out, to learn that his son Janek, infatuated with Marty, has killed himself. Hauk-Šendorf comes in, with his wife's jewels, proposing that he and Marty should elope to Spain. He is followed by Gregor, Dr Kolenaty. Vítek, Kristina, Prus and a doctor. A study of the handwriting on various documents has suggested to them that Marty is a forger. She confesses to them the truth, which they finally believe, and offers the formula to Kristina, who burns it, as Emilia Marty dies.

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