Cunning Little Vixen [Blu-ray]

Lively, colourful production
With its charming depiction of life and nature, with the animals of the forest featuring throughout as characters, it's common to see Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen staged like a pantomime and aimed at a younger audience, even though some of the behaviour of the creatures is indeed quite frankly "animalistic". The opera is not of course essentially about animals but about life and, indeed, the facts of life, so it's interesting to see the opera treated with a more mature outlook for the 2012 production at Glyndebourne. It may perhaps lose a little bit of its innocent charm in the process, but there's more than enough gained from the usual fine attention that Glyndebourne give to the production - and the opera - as a complete package.

Rather than having children and older performers dressed in the usual colourful animal suits, the creatures of the forest are still characterised as animals here, but without the full make-up. Instead they carry only an object...

It's All the Forester ...
... who makes or breaks any staging of The Cunning Little Vixen, an opera that has been getting more stagings in recent years than any other work by Leos Janacek. The Forester sings more passages, expresses more of Janacek's passions, and interacts with every other character, human of animal, in the opera. If the Forester is boring or buffoonish, as Jukka Rasilainen is in Janacek - The Cunning Little Vixen, the whole opera sags into silliness. Luckily, Sergei Leiferkus is such a superb Forester, both vocally and dramatically, that he could carry the whole production without help. He gets help, however, from the three other male singers with important roles, Mischa Schlemonianski as the Priest, Adrian Thompson as the Schoolmaster, and William Dazely as the poacher Harasta. The smaller "human" roles of the Forester's Wife, the Innkeeper, and the Innkeeper's wife are also acted vigorously and sung ably. It's the...

Adults Only!
This was my first experience with a staging of this opera. I have an LP performance (Mackerras, Vienna) that I like very much but it certainly did not prepare me for the sex among the animal characters! The entirely outstanding cast of dancers and singers, the remarkably intricate sets, and the whirling choreography all conquered the extreme challenges of this opera. My initial reaction was to compare it to the performance of Berg's Lulu with nude scenes by Patricia Petibon, However, Lulu is human while the sexual content of the Janáček work is primarily animal, but still it is a bit of a shock. I recommend viewing the Extras prior to watching the opera. Jurowski couldn't have produced better sound throughout, especially in the orchestral interludes. The picture and sound of the Blu-Ray recording are magnificent.

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