Opera North is opening the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival and its own 2012/13 season with a brand new production of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case.  Janáček’s penultimate opera is both a mystery thriller and a meditation on immortality and desire.

Conducted by Music Director Richard Farnes, The  Makropulos Case will be the first production Opera North has taken to the Edinburgh International Festival since 2004’s Orfeo. It is the last in Opera North’s series of the major Janáček works, which has most recently included From the House of the Dead (2011) and The Adventures of Mr Broucek (2009).

Swedish soprano Ylva Kihlberg will make her UK debut in the key role of Emilia Marty. She has been a company principal at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen since 2000 where her roles have included Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Liza (The Queen of Spades) and Wellgunde, Gerhilde and Gutrune (Der Ring des Nibelungen).

Further roles will be sung by Paul Nilon (Albert Gregor), Mark le Brocq (Vitek), Stephanie Corley (Kristina), Robert Hayward (Jaroslav Prus) and James Creswell (Dr Kolenatý).

The Makropulos Case is directed by Tom Cairns with set and costume design by Hildegard Bechtler and lighting design by Bruno Poet. It opens at the Edinburgh International Festival on Saturday 11 August and will then be part of Opera North’s Autumn 2012 Season in Leeds and on tour.