The Cunning Little Vixen

The Cunning Little Vixen
Opera by Leoš Janáček
Relief of the composer by Julius Pelikán
Native title	Czech: Příhody lišky Bystroušky
Other title	Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears
Librettist	Leoš Janáček
Language	Czech
Based on	serialized novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek
Premiere	6 November 1924 (1924-11-06) National Theatre Brno

The Cunning Little Vixen (Czech: Příhody lišky Bystroušky; until the 1970s, generally referred to in English as Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears ) is a Czech language opera by Leoš Janáček, composed 1921 to 1923.^[1] Its libretto was adapted by the composer from a 1920 serialized novella, Lišky Bystrouška, by Rudolf Těsnohlídek, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny (with illustrations by Stanislav Lolek).^[2]

The opera incorporates Moravian folk music and rhythms as it recounts the life of a clever (alternative reading: sharp-eared) fox and accompanying wildlife, as well as a few humans, and their small adventures while traversing their lifecycles.^[3][4] Described as a comic opera,^[5] it has nonetheless been noted to contain a serious theme.^[6] Interpretations of the work remain varied, ranging from children's entertainment to a tragedy.^[7]

Composition history

When Janáček discovered Těsnohlídek's comic-strip-inspired story and decided to turn it into an opera, he began work by meeting with the author and beginning a study of animals. With this understanding of the characters involved, his own 70 years of life experience, and an undying, unrequited love for the much younger, married Kamila Stösslová, he began work on the opera. He transformed the originally comedic cartoon into a philosophical reflection on the cycle of life and death by including the death of the vixen. As with other operas by older composers, this late opera shows a deep understanding of life leading to a return to simplicity.

It was given its premiere performance on 6 November 1924 in National Theatre Brno conducted by František Neumann, with Ota Zítek as director and Eduard Milén as stage designer.

Performance history

The opera received its Italian premiere at La Scala in 1958 with Mariella Adani in the title role. The work was first staged in England in 1961 by the Sadler's Wells Opera Company (now the English National Opera) under the direction of Colin Graham, with conductor Colin Davis, and with scenery and costume designs by Barry Kay. In 1981, the New York City Opera mounted a production in English based on images created by Maurice Sendak and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas in his company debut. It starred soprano Gianna Rolandi as Vixen Sharp-Ears and baritone Richard Cross as the Forester. Glyndebourne Festival Opera staged it in 2012, directed by Melly Still, and a revival was included in the Glyndebourne Festival for 2016 with Christopher Purves as the Forester and Elena Tsallagova as the Vixen, conductor Jakub Hrůša and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In May 2014 the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst performed an innovative version directed by Yuval Sharon. This production returned the opera to its roots by utilizing animation and hand drawn video sets by the artists Bill Barminski and Christopher Louie of Walter Robot Studios. The production featured the use of hole-in-the-wall carnival cutouts to place the singers heads on the animated bodies of the animal characters. Glimmerglass Opera staged a new production in the summer of 2018.

Roles

Monument of Bystrouška, Janáček's opera The Cunning Little Vixen at Hukvaldy, Janáček's hometown

Synopsis

Music

Apart from the Excursions of Mr Broucek, this is Janáček's lightest opera, and, despite the titular vixen's death at the end of the work, it stands in contrast to the often brutally serious nature of operas such as Jenůfa and Káťa Kabanová. In The Cunning Little Vixen, the composer moved away from the more conversational style of previous and subsequent operas in favor of a more folk-like style, and wove into its fabric some of his most experimental opera concepts (ballet, mime, and orchestral interludes).

Janáček based The Cunning Little Vixen's tonality on modes (similarly to much output during his last decade), expanding the music's harmonic range through the utilisation of the seventh and ninth chords.^[9] The composition makes frequent use of folk-influenced rhythms and "sčasovka" (personally-coined term for a short motif), while it has been noted to contain similarities to the music of French composer Claude Debussy.^[9]

At Janáček's request, the final scene from The Cunning Little Vixen was performed at his funeral in 1928.

Recordings

• Prague National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra/Bohumil Gregor (Supraphon SU 3071-2612)
• Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra/Simon Rattle, recorded 1991 (Chandos 3101(2), sung in English)
• Wiener Staatsopernchor & Philharmoniker/Charles Mackerras, recorded 1981 (Decca 417 129-2)
• Orchestre de Paris/Charles Mackerras, video recorded 1995 (Kultur D4544, OCLC 698051148; Medici Arts, OCLC 698051148)

Arrangements

• Orchestral suite of the opera by Václav Talich, performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Václav Talich
• Orchestral suite of the opera by Václav Talich, performed by Boston Symphony Orchestra, conductor Erich Leinsdorf
• Orchestral suite of the opera by Václav Talich, performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Charles Mackerras
• Entr'actes from the opera, arrangement by František Jílek, performed by Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Jakub Hrůša
• Music from the opera for brass quintet, arrangement by František Jílek, performed by Brno Brass Quintet, ar Vlastimil Bialas
• Cut version of the opera for an animated film, arrangement by Kent Nagano, in English, texted Geoff Dunbar, performed by soloists, Berlin German Symphony Orchestra, conductor Kent Nagano

Films

• In 1965, Walter Felsenstein directed a filmed version in German (Das schlaue Füchslein).
• In 2003, an animated version was produced by the BBC.^[10]

Adaptations

Ursula Dubosarsky's 2018 novel for children, "Brindabella", is based on Rudolf Těsnohlídek's "Vixen Sharp Ears", the source story of the Cunning Little Vixen, ^[11] relocated in the Australian bush, with the role of the Vixen played by a kangaroo.^[12][13]

Title translation difficulty

Broken down from the original Czech, the title is

Příhody = Tales (or Adventures),

lišky = of Vixen (i.e. genitive case, one fox, female),

Bystroušky = Sharp-Ears (double meaning: pointed [ears], clever, sly).

There is no mention in the Czech of a diminutive ("little"), although this idea is included in both the German (Das schlaue Füchslein) and recent (since 1980s) English versions of the opera's name. It was probably the German name, used for the 1965 Felsenstein film, that established the English "cunning little", ignoring the important double meaning in "Sharp-Ears." The first three audio recordings, all from the Czech company Supraphon (Neumann 1957, Gregor 1972, Neumann 1980) used, naturally, the original Czech name. Then Decca recorded the opera with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1981, and this widely circulated release made The Cunning Little Vixen the international, if inaccurate, standard.

References

Notes

Sources

• Holden, Amanda (ed.) (2001), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• Janáček, Leoš (Timothy Cheek) (2004), The Janáček Opera Libretti: Kát'a Kabanová, Scarecrow Press.
• Kennedy, Michael and Joyce. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (5th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-920383-3.
• Sokol, Martin L. (1981), The New York City Opera – An American Adventure, Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-612280-4
• Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
• Zemanová, Mirka (2002), Janáček: A Composer's Life, University Press of New England. ISBN 9781555535490

External links

• Gavin Plumley's Leoš Janáček site, information on The Cunning Little Vixen
• Synopsis of The Cunning Little Vixen from the English Touring Opera
• Synopsis of The Cunning Little Vixen from the Royal Opera House
• The Cunning Little Vixen: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)