When writing Př�hody li�ky bystrou�ky (or �The Cunning Little Vixen�, as it has come to be called), Leo� Jan�ček was not entirely sure what to call his new work, an �opera�, a �fable� or perhaps, most aptly, an �opera idyll�. Director David Pountney boldly describes it among the composer�s stage works as

And logically, for such a wide-ranging work, The Vixen holds great appeal for singers, directors and designers alike, whose approaches extend from Gypsy folklore (Brussels, 1986) to Fiat 500s on stage (Spoleto, 1998) and back into animated form (BBC, 2002). There is a balance in the piece between realism (the various animals on stage and the stories of how Jan�ček notated their real-life counterparts� noises and calls) and symbolism (the dual casting of animals and humans, the Forester�s final numinous epiphany). Of all Jan�ček�s operas, this one - his seventh - is perhaps most open to visual interpretation, but the composer himself was undecided of how his seventh opera should be staged.

It is through the design that the audience is made aware that the opera is not just a simple tale about forest animals, but about the wider cycle of nature. A realistic mise en sc�ne shows the gap between the animals and humans, where a less literal interpretation joins the two. It is not entirely clear whether Jan�ček wanted the two worlds linked. He encouraged the doubling of various parts, but this may have been partly a cost-effective decision for small or provincial theatres, such as in Jan�ček�s home-town of Brno. Jan�ček actively endorsed the doubling of parts and linking the many settings of his other comic opera, The Excursions of Mr Brouček, yet he wrote after the first performance of The Vixen in Mainz that �only a hint should surface of the sameness of our cycle and that of animal life. That is enough � it is true that for most this symbolism is too little�. Whatever the associations, two styles of production are associated with The Vixen, one realistic and one more symbolic.

Composed in Brno and at Jan�ček�s retreat in Hukvaldy without hitch or revision, the opera was premiered in Brno on 6 November 1924, as recollected by his maid.

Indeed �the master� had very few reservations about the production, only that some of the roles were cast as adults, where children would have been more fitting. Mil�n�s designs for the Brno premiere tended towards a more �arty� style, with most famously a cubist dachshund. Vixen Sharp Ears was a foxified human, wearing a feather boa and a hat with subtle little ears, as depicted in Mil�n�s illustration on the front page of the original piano score. Jan�ček was so impressed by Z�tek�s and Mil�n�s �beautiful work� that he urged Otakar Ostrčil, the Music Director of the Prague National Theatre, to take the Brno production. Ostrčil was adamant that Prague would wish �to solve The Vixen in [its] own way�. The Prague premiere (in a new production by Ferdinand Pujman and sets by Josef Čapek) was given on 18 May 1925 as part of that year�s International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) festival, leading to the first broadcast of one of Jan�ček�s operas. Not all aspects of the production pleased the composer. The Forester�s Act III aria when his �gun simply slips from his hand� was changed to him convulsing in death throes. Jan�ček and his German translator Max Brod despised the idea.

When Brod made his own translation of the opera for the first foreign premiere in Mainz in 1927, he also placed his own stamp on the opera, �to make things clearer and more concentrated�. His German version of the text was more of a free adaptation of Jan�ček�s original rather than a faithful translation. It created links between Hara�ta�s invisible lover Terynka and the title-role, but on the contrary he abolished many of the doubled parts, breaking down the connections between the animals and humans. Jan�ček never interpolated Brod�s changes into his original, preferring his own intentions. The opera continued to remain dear to the composer throughout his life and the final scene was played at his funeral in 1928, as later recalled by his wife.

After Jan�ček�s death, before World War II, further performances took place in Brno, in Prague (1937, in a new orchestration by Franti�ek �kvor and Jaroslav Ř�dk�) as well as in Liberec, Bratislava, Olomouc, Plzeň and Ostrava. For some time however the opera remained only popular in Czechoslovakia, despite notable premieres in Mainz and Zagreb (1939). After the war Walter Felsenstein�s staged the opera at the Komische Oper, Berlin. Conducted by V�clav Neumann, the production was seen in Paris in 1957 and Prague in 1962. This more realistic production helped to popularise the little-known piece, bringing it to non-Czech audiences. Contrary to prevailing opinion, however, Felsenstein�s production did not establish The Vixen outside Central Europe. The opera�s first UK performance was at the Sadler�s Wells Opera in 1961, conducted by Colin Davis, in a production by Colin Graham with designs by Barry Kay. Still, The Cunning Little Vixen did not appear with regularity outside Germany and Czechoslovakia until the 1970s. It was performed at the Royal Academy of Music in 1973 and in 1975 Jonathan Miller staged a production at Glyndebourne, which then toured and conducted by a young Simon Rattle. The opera was also staged during the 1970s in Santa Fe (1975), Melbourne (1976), San Francisco (1977), Osaka (1977), Gothenburg (1978) and Tokyo (1978), marking its final established entry into the world-wide repertory.

Perhaps the most enduring interpretation of more recent times is Scottish Opera and WNO�s 1980 production first given as part of their Jan�ček �cycle�. Having performed Jenůfa (1975), The Makropulos Case (1978) and K�t�a Kabanov� (1979), they turned to The Vixen (1980) and finally to From the House of the Dead (1982), all directed by David Pountney and designed by the late Maria Bj�rnson. This cycle confirmed a permanent home for the Czech composer�s stage works in the national repertory. The opening performances of The Vixen were conducted by Richard Armstrong, with Helen Field in the title-role and Philip Joll as the Forester. The production created a compromise between the realistic and symbolic stances of previous productions. The sets of rolling fields, split to produce interiors, and to which were added huge white sheets for snow, bare, root-less branches for autumn and twirling flowers for the wedding were coupled with a sassy Charleston-tripping Vixen (as in Brno in 1924). The production achieved great popularity after its first performance at the Edinburgh Festival and to date it has been produced by WNO, Scottish Opera, Opera North and English National Opera, touring all over Britain. Recently it has also been seen in Milan and Venice.

The opera was performed in 1981 at New York City Opera (in a new translation by Yveta Synek Graff and Robert T. Jones) in a production which featured designs by Maurice Sendak (whose most famous drawings for Where the Wild Things Are themselves became the subject of an opera by Oliver Knussen). Despite these increasing numbers of performances in the many City Opera/Volksoper equivalents of the world, some more established opera houses took longer to find a place for The Vixen. Performed by Sadler�s Wells (now ENO) since its first performance in 1961 Jan�ček�s opera was not performed at Covent Garden until the present production on 7 June 1990. Simon Rattle conducted a cast including Lillian Watson, Diana Montague (a travesti fox, as in the Brno original), Thomas Allen, Robert Tear and Gwynne Howell. It was televised and recorded by EMI. The production was revived in June 1993, when Bernard Haitink conducted a cast including Watson, Rita Cullis, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Robin Leggate and Donald Adams. It was last revived in February and March 2003, with Dawn Upshaw, Joyce DiDonato, Gerald Finley, Stuart Kale and Jeremy Shite, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. The interpretation by its director, Bill Bryden, is less literal than some, and from the outset William Dudley�s designs reverberate the message of the Forester�s mystical monologue. The unbroken presence of a large wheel, clock mechanics and people who morph from animals to humans all accentuate the opera�s tragi-comic �merry-go-round of life�. Such ideas are hard to portray realistically, as many directors have found throughout the opera�s performance history, and perhaps this and the Pountney production have, like the Brno original, been the closest to Jan�ček�s own mixed messages about how the piece should be staged.

Despite problems with staging, this ebullient opera really had popularity written all over it from the outset. Far removed from the desperate histrionics of Jenůfa or K�t�a Kabanov�, it eventually found a niche in the international repertory. Although the composer�s sunniest and most accessible opera, the magnetism of The Cunning Little Vixen is that this �merry thing with a sad end� is visually and philosophically his most complex work. As the repertory�s own cycle continues to revolve and Jan�ček�s works maintain to be discovered and grow in popularity, this glowing opera allows a vital root into the Moravian composer�s idiosyncratic world for both performers and audiences alike.


This article was first published in The Cunning Little Vixen programme book (ed. John Snelson) for The Royal Opera performances during February and March 2003.