The Cunning Little Vixen
Encyclopedia
The Cunning Little Vixen (Czech
: Příhody Lišky Bystroušky, lit. The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears) is an opera
by Leoš Janáček
, with a libretto
adapted by the composer
from a serialized novella (daily comic) by Rudolf Těsnohlídek
and Stanislav Lolek
, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny
.
, he began work on the opera. Writing his own libretto, he transformed himself into the forester, and Kamila into the vixen and Terynka. He also 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 Brno
conducted by František Neumann, with Ota Zítek as director and Eduard Milén as stage designer.
in 1958 with Mariella Adani
in the title role. The work was first staged in England by the Sadler's Wells Opera Company (since 1974 English National Opera
) in 1961 - under the direction of Colin Graham
, conductor Colin Davis
, scenery and costume designs by Barry Kay
.
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).
At Janáček's request, the final scene from The Cunning Little Vixen was performed at his funeral in 1928
.
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
: Příhody Lišky Bystroušky, lit. The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears) is an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
by Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
, with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
adapted by the composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
from a serialized novella (daily comic) by Rudolf Těsnohlídek
Rudolf Tesnohlídek
Rudolf Těsnohlídek was a Czech writer, journalist and translator. He also used the pseudonym Arnošt Bellis.- Life :...
and Stanislav Lolek
Stanislav Lolek
Czech artist Stanislav Lolek is best known for his illustrations in the serialized novella Liška Bystrouška. The editor of the newspaper Lidové Noviny passed on some of Lolek's illustrations of a rural tale about a gamekeeper and a vixen to Czech author Rudolf Těsnohlídek and their collaboration ...
, which was first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny
Lidové noviny
Lidové noviny is a daily newspaper published in the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily. Its profile is nowadays a national news daily covering political, economic, cultural and scientific affairs, mostly with a centre-right, conservative view...
.
Composition history
When Janáček discovered Těsnohlídek's comic-strip 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 StösslováKamila Stösslová
Kamila Stösslová holds an unusual place in music history. The composer Leoš Janáček, upon meeting her in 1917 in the resort town of Luhačovice, fell deeply in love with her, despite both their marriages and the fact he was almost forty years older than Kamila...
, he began work on the opera. Writing his own libretto, he transformed himself into the forester, and Kamila into the vixen and Terynka. He also 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
1924 in music
-Events:*February 18 – First recordings by Bix Beiderbecke*February 24 – An Experiment In Modern Music concert at Aeolian Hall, New York – première of Rhapsody in Blue.*June – Alexander von Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony is premiered in Prague....
in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
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 ScalaLa Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in 1958 with Mariella Adani
Mariella Adani
Mariella Adani is an Italian classical soprano who has had an active career in operas, concerts, and recitals during the 1950s through the 1980s...
in the title role. The work was first staged in England by the Sadler's Wells Opera Company (since 1974 English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
) in 1961 - under the direction of Colin Graham
Colin Graham
Colin Graham, OBE was a British-born stage director of opera, theater, and television.Graham was educated at Northaw School , Stowe School and RADA...
, conductor Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
, scenery and costume designs by Barry Kay
Barry Kay
Barry Kay , who studied arts at the Académie Julian in Paris, was a stage and costume designer of international renown...
.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 6 November 1924 (Conductor: František Neumann) |
|---|---|---|
| Badger | bass | |
| Bystrouška,the vixen | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Hana Hrdličková-Zavřelová |
| Chocholka, the hen | soprano | |
| Cock | soprano | |
| Cricket child | soprano | |
| Forester | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Arnold Flögl |
| Frantík | soprano | |
| Frog child | soprano | |
| Gamekeeper | baritone | |
| Gamekeeper's wife | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
|
| Grasshopper child | soprano | |
| Harašta | bass | Ferdinand Pour |
| Jay | soprano | |
| Lapák the dog | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Marta Dobruská |
| Midge child | soprano | |
| Mosquito | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
|
| Mrs. Páskova | soprano | |
| Owl | contralto | |
| Pásek | tenor | Bedřich Zavadil |
| Pepík | soprano | |
| Priest | bass | |
| Schoolmaster | tenor | Antonín Pelc |
| Woodpecker | contralto | |
| Young Bystrouška child | soprano | |
| Zlatohřbítek, the fox | soprano | Božena Snopková |
Act 1
In the forest, the animals and insects are playing and dancing. The Forester enters and lies down against a tree for a nap. A curious Vixen Cub (usually sung by a young girl), inquisitively chases a frog right into the lap of the surprised forester who forcibly takes the vixen home as a pet. Time passes (in the form of an orchestral interlude) and we see the Vixen, now grown to a young adult (and sung by a soprano), tied up in the forester's yard with the conservative old dachshund. Fed up with life in confinement, the vixen chews through her rope, attacks the chickens, and hops the fence to freedom.Act 2
The vixen takes over a badger's home and kicks him out. In the inn, the pastor, forester, teacher and schoolmaster drink and talk about their mutual infatuation with the gypsy girl Terynka. The drunken schoolmaster leaves the inn and mistakes a sunflower behind which the vixen is hiding for Terynka and confesses his devotion to her. The forester, also on his way home, sees the vixen and fires two shots at her, sending her running. Later, the vixen, coming into her womanhood, meets a charming boy fox, and they retire to the badger's home. An unexpected pregnancy and a forest full of gossipy creatures necessitate their marriage, which rounds out the act.Act 3
The poacher Harasta is engaged to Terynka and is out hunting in preparation for their marriage. He sets a fox trap, which the numerous vixen cubs mock. Harasta, watching from a distance, shoots and kills the vixen, sending her children running. At Harasta's wedding, the forester sees the vixen's fur, which Harasta gave to Terynka as a wedding present, and flees to the forest to reflect. He returns to the place where he met the vixen, and sits at the tree grieving the loss of both the vixen and Terynka. His grief grows until, just as in the beginning of the opera, a frog unexpectedly jumps in his lap, the grandson of the one who did so in act one. This reassurance of the cycle of death leading to new life gives his heart a deep peace.Music
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 JenůfaJenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
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).
At Janáček's request, the final scene from The Cunning Little Vixen was performed at his funeral in 1928
1928 in music
-Events:*April 27 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet Apollon musagète is premiered in Washington.*September 11 - Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters, is premiered in Brno....
.
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/Sir Charles Mackerras, recorded 1981 (Decca 417 129-2)
External links
- Gavin Plumley's Leoš Janáček site, information on The Cunning Little Vixen
- The Cunning Little Vixen - Barry Kay's scenery and costume designs for the first London production; stage shots; reflections and synopsis by Colin Graham and Barry Kay
- Synopsis of The Cunning Little Vixen from the English Touring OperaEnglish Touring OperaEnglish Touring Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom. From 1979 to 1992 it was known as Opera 80.- About the company :Opera 80 was founded in 1979 by the Arts Council of Great Britain as the successor to Opera For All; in 1992 the company changed its name to English Touring Opera...
- Synopsis of The Cunning Little Vixen from the Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...