Exquisite beauty in the music of Janaček’s Vixen

What is the purpose of life? It is surely life itself; and that is precisely the meaning of this engaging Jana č ek opera , which ends in the affirmation of new life with the re-emergence of spring time.

In the meantime we are treated to exquisitely beautiful music, played with delicacy and feeling by the ENO orchestra under the excellent baton of their music director Martyn Brabbins. Janaček created his own libretto from a series of illustrated stories by Czech journalist and poet Rudolf Těsnohlídek, entitled “Vixen Sharp-Ears” (Liška Bystrouška), and the resulting opera is his most popular in the Czech Republic. The English title, Cunning Little Vixen, is a translation of the German (schlaue Füchslein) that uses a diminutive, quite rightly absent from the Czech original. 

Putting it on stage is an intriguing challenge. It requires an evocation of the natural world, with numerous wild and domesticated animals in subsidiary roles, along with humans such as the Forester, Schoolmaster, Priest, Poacher, etc. In this new production for the English National Opera by Jamie Manton, the set is a wood yard with a suspended roll of cloth that periodically unrolls to deliver changes of scene, such as a baking hot sun on a summer ’ s day. This cleverly keeps the expense down, but I wished the lighting had revealed the greenery of springtime towards the end.

The strongest and most delightful aspect of the production were the children as small animals — the frog, cricket, grasshopper, and forest mushrooms — all in delightful costumes by Tom Scutt. Children also appeared as young versions of the vixen, even the dragonfly and forester, at different stages of their lives.

As the ever-present Forester, the American baritone Lester Lynch gave a strong account of the role, particularly towards the end. In the bass role of the Priest, Clive Bayley was superb, doubling up as the Badger, and Alan Oke made an outstanding Schoolmaster, looking for all the world like the original Czech author of “Vixen Sharp-ears”, and doubling up as the Mosquito.

The young bass-baritone Ossian Huskinson made a fine Poacher, and as the Vixen herself Sally Matthews was terrific, combining beautifully with South African mezzo-soprano Pumeza Matshikiza as the Fox. Like conventional modern humans they decide to get married when the  Vixen becomes pregnant. Their wedding scene was a highlight of the production, beautifully lit, while Martyn Brabbins and the orchestra excelled in providing the orchestral colours that Janaček’s score creates. 

His music and clever interplay of the unselfconscious animal world with that of the all-too-conscious humans, constrained in a world of their own creation, is gloriously philosophical, expressed musically with wonderful emotional intensity and beauty.

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