The Death of the Lord
on Mortality as a Framework for Life & Love
On November 21, 1922, a new play was introduced on a stage in Prague. It was one of two plays that appeared that year by a young writer named Karel Capek. The title of the production, in the original Czech, was Věc Makropulos, literally "The Makropulos Case."
It is appropriate that Capek's theatrical work was soon converted to an opera, because it does, in fact, tell the story of an opera singer; her name is Amelia.
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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