The Cunning Little Vixen: Brno National Theater

О событии

Follow Janáček's fox through this beautiful animal opera.

The score of The Cunning Little Vixen contains some of Janáček‘s most enchanting music, telling the warming tale of a mischievous fox. A work that is delightful and humorous that also seamlessly blends the human and animal worlds. The opera is a philosophical reflection of the natural cycle of life and death, in a blaze of triumphant optimism that is striking yet poignant. The magic of Janacek's score is in the way he portrays all of these lives with his most colourful and deftly woven music, sometimes spiky, sometimes intensely lyrical.

The story of the cunning vixen began as a newspaper cartoon strip published in 1920. The Brno newspaper, Lidové noviny, commissioned Rudolf Tĕsnohlídek to write the text for a series of drawings by Stanislav Lolek telling the tale of the adventures of Vixen Sharp‐Ears. The Janáček household were regular readers of the newspaper and Janáček became captivated by the cartoon, inspiring him to write his own libretto for an opera. He composed the opera in Brno and at Janáček’s retreat in Hukvaldy. The Cunning Little Vixen was premiered in Brno on 6th November 1924, conducted by František Neumann, with Ota Zítek as director and Eduard Milén as stage designer.

The musical preparation for this new production of the Janáček Opera’s The Cunning Little Vixen is under the direction of the internationally renowned conductor, Tomáš Hanus. In charge of stage direction is James Conway, the English director and Chief Executive of the English Touring Opera. Part of the production team is the English costume and set designer, Neil Irish. This production represents an interesting combination of Czech interpretative tradition with the English production team’s fresh perspective on Janáček’s operatic work.

Vixen: Adriana Kohútková
Young Vixen: Hedvika Hirschová, Markéta Toufarová
Fox: Denisa Hamarová, Jana Wallingerová
Forester: Peter Mikuláš
Schoolmaster/Mosquito: Zoltán Korda, Petr Levíček
Parson/Badger: Jan Hladík, Richard Novák
Forester's Wife/Owl: Daniela Straková-Šedrlová
Pásek, the innkeeper: Aleš Šťáva
Pásek's Wife/Woodpecker: Jana Iskrová
Pepík: Monika Seberová, Markéta Toufarová
Frantík: Hedvika Hirschová, Kristina Šimečková
Harašta, the poacher: Roman Janál, Svatopluk Sem
Grasshopper: Monika Seberová, Kristina Šimečková
Cricket: Hedvika Hirschová, Markéta Toufarová
Frog: Dominik Levíček, Kristina Šimečková
Lapák, the dog: Adriana Hlavsová, Jitka Zerhauová
Cockerel: Andrea Priechodská
Chief Hen: Tereza Merklová, Andrea Priechodská
Jay: Tereza Merklová, Andrea Priechodská

Conductor: Tomáš Hanus, Jakub Klecker