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The cast of The Makropulos Affair at the Theatre Royal Glasgow (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) 

Despite a ravishing score, some fabulous singing and elegant sets, this new co-production between Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera, directed by Olivia Fuchs, never quite gelled. For the performances in Cardiff, Leoš Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair was sung in Czech but was this deemed too challenging for audiences north of the border? Witty as David Pountney’s English translation was, the comic one-liners often jarred with the overall tone of the story, its intent and characters. Furthermore, Janáček’s fantastically gnarly score didn’t sound complete minus the grit of the Czech language, such an integral part of his music.

That aside, Nicola Turner provided imaginative set designs for Prague in the early 1920s and glamorous vibrant costumes. Things started well enough with an evocative black and white montage by video artist Sam Sharples screened during the overture. A young girl emerges from frozen ice – like Frankenstein’s monster - and then morphs into her different personas like a Hollywood starlet preserved for eternity in celluloid. This is Elina Makropulos, a woman cursed to live for more than 300 years after being forced to drink a potion made by her father on the whim of a cautious emperor - the first of many abuses she was to suffer over the centuries.

When we meet her final incarnation as opera star Emilia Marty, she has seen too much and is cruel towards the men who fall at her feet. Calmly brushing her hair on hearing the news of Janek’s suicide was particularly coldhearted. Uniting these contradictions in Marty’s mercurial and overbearing character is a tough ask and while Orla Boylan was vocally solid, she failed to exude starry charisma or generate any sympathy. A wordy opera heavy on unrelenting plot didn’t help.

Orla Boylan and Alasdair Elliott in The Makropulos Affair at the Theatre Royal Glasgow (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) 

There were, however, stand out performances from Mark Le Brocq as the clerk Vítek and Catriona Hewitson as his daughter Kristina, an aspiring singer. Their close and loving relationship hinted at what Elina might have enjoyed in other circumstances. Roland Wood is magnificent as the stiff aristocrat Baron Prus while Alasdair Elliott revelled in the lusty madness of Count Hauk-Šendorf, an old lover of Marty’s. Ryan Capozzo (Albert Gregor), Henry Waddington (Dr Kolenatý) and Michael Lafferty (Janek) also turned in strong performances vocally and dramatically.

In the pit, conductor Martyn Brabbins and the orchestra brought this magnificent score to animated life, with piercing woodwind commentary and shiny brass fanfares stirring up emotional turbulence.