Makropulos Affair, The, is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Leos Janacek (see Janacek, Leos ). Its Czech title is Vec Makropulos. The composer himself wrote the libretto (text), which is based on a 1922 play by Karel Čapek, a pioneer in what is now called science fiction (see Čapek, Karel ). The opera received its first performance at Brno, now in the Czech Republic, on Dec. 18, 1926.
A famous singer, Emilia Marty, intervenes in a long-running lawsuit and shows that she has firsthand knowledge of events that took place over 100 years before. It gradually emerges that Marty is not interested in the outcome of the case but badly wishes to regain possession of an old Greek document in the hands of one of the litigants, Baron Prus. The document contains the formula for an elixir of prolonged life. Marty, as Elina Makropulos, was the guinea pig for the elixir 337 years before and has since lived through many generations and many changes of name. But she has always kept the same initials. Now she is tired of life. Prus reluctantly lets her have the document in return for allowing him to spend one night with her. Having got the formula back, she can end her intolerable life knowing that the secret will disappear with her. The others around her long to know the formula, but she burns the document and dies.
