The Cunning Little Vixen

For four nights (June 22–25), the marble and polished wood interior of Avery Fisher Hall in New York City was transformed into a place where foxes, hens, grasshoppers, beetles and other creatures (even humans) loved, lusted and lived in a field of sunflowers and trees. Leos Janácek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen was performed by a large cast, headlined by soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (in the title role), baritone Alan Opie and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of its music director, Alan Gilbert. The production, by Giants Are Small, was the inspired creation of its energetic director and costume designer, Doug Fitch.

Concept art representing the stage from *The Cunning Little Vixen*

Fitch, producer Edouard Getaz and the team have created a fanciful forest world with some innovative costume designs, including backpack-wearing mosquitoes, beetles with heads constructed from old bicycle helmets and industrial ear protectors, and the prickliest rubber tubing porcupine ever to appear on a stage. As part of Gilbert’s commitment to “the connections among visual arts, theater, literature and music,” the Philharmonic has partnered with Fitch and his team for a second time (they presented Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre last season). Fitch says he loves Vixen’s “visualizable world.” Based on a serial cartoon strip that ran in a Czech newspaper, the folklore-inspired world of Cunning Little Vixen is actually not a children’s tale. Rather, it’s a story of romance, rejection, sexual awakening and regret. Gilbert says, “Even though many of the characters are animals, Vixen is profoundly about the human condition.” “I’m amazed how the worlds of humans and animals intersect,” says Bayrakdarian. “In the opera, the human world is filled with regret and cynicism. I’m not suggesting the animal world is perfect, but none of the animal characters ever look back to the past; they are all looking to the future. Yes, there’s death in their world, but they have a way of regenerating faster, of getting over it faster.” She points out, “If adaptability is a sign of intelligence, you see that the animals in the story adapt much quicker than the humans do.”

A costume concept from *The Cunning Little Vixen*

Bayrakdarian says of the title character, “The vixen is very appealing, a complete, well-rounded character who grows in front of us. We women can identify with her. There’s the scene where the fox tells her he loves only her and she questions him, ‘Oh really, why only me?’ She’s not going to be tricked by a lying fox. We also see her as a mom to countless kids and in her relationship with the fox, which is still beautiful and filled with love and desire. It’s the opposite of the human world, where everyone is sick of their spouses.” Jumping frogs, croaking crickets, hectoring hens, a shrewd, sexy vixen and music that Bayrakdarian likens to “Strauss and Puccini all in one” and Gilbert calls “lush and gorgeous,” should make for an enchanting trip through the forest.

by Craig Zeichner