The Cunning Little Vixen

The most famous fox on the operatic stage is surely Janáček’s in Brno! Captivating, tender, and filled with children and their toys, who transform the Forester’s house into a forest and themselves into woodland creatures with playful ease.

Every Janáček opera is a unique creation, and The Cunning Little Vixen, where the human and animal worlds intertwine on stage, has no equivalent in the operatic repertoire. Janáček sought a subject that would reflect his view of the world and of the eternal cycle of life, and so his Vixen dies at the hands of the poacher Harašta. Yet another young vixen appears… life goes on. That is as it should be, and Janáček’s music tells us the same: lyrical and melodic, with an orchestra shimmering in the colours of the Bílovice forests and the creatures that live within them. Everything sparkles with humour—at times bristly in a typically Janáček manner, but essentially full of kindness.

The author of the literary source, Rudolf Těsnohlídek, was also the founder of the beautiful tradition of the Republic’s Christmas Tree, and his discovery of the little girl Liduška in the forest before Christmas became one of Janáček’s inspirations for the Vixen story. This is also reflected in director Jiří Heřman’s staging: “The inspiration came from Těsnohlídek’s great idea of building the Dagmar Children’s Home, where we have set our production. We tell the Vixen’s story through the eyes of children.”