EVENINGS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC - BAHRAIN - |
PROGRAMME FOR 7 MARCH 2001 |
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN OPERA BY LEOS JANACEK (1854-1928) |
Opera in three acts Libretto: By the composer after Rudolf Tesnohlidek's verses for drawings by Stanislav Lolek Premiere: 6 November 1924, Brno |
CAST Vixen (Sharpears) Forester Fox Harasta, the poacher Schoolteacher / Mosquito Parson / Badger Forester's Wife / Owl Cock / Innkeeper's Wife / Jay Innkeeper / Dog |
- Eva Jenis (soprano) - Thomas Allen (baritone) - Hana Minutillo (soprano) - Ivan Kusnjer (bass-baritone) - Josef Hajna (tenor) - Richard Novak (bass) - Libuse Marova (mezzo-soprano) - Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) - Jean-Philippe Marliere |
Chatelet Chorus & Paris Orchestra conducted by CHARLES MACKERRAS |
THE STORY ACT 1 It is summer in the forest. The animals and insects go calmly about their business. A badger smokes a pipe, a blue dragonfly hovers in a dance. Then the arrival of the forester disturbs their world. Tired out, he chooses a spot to lie down and take a nap. As soon as he is asleep, the inhabitants of the forest resume their activities and perform an enchanting dance. A frog tries to catch a mosquito while a young vixen looks on, wondering if the frog would make a tasty meal. She pounces, and the frog jumps quickly, landing on the forester's nose. He wakes up and sees the pretty vixen. After a couple of feints, he catches her and goes off with her under his arm. The dragonfly laments the loss of her friend. It is autumn, and outside the forester's house, his wife pours some milk into a saucer for the dog and the fox cub, which she and her husband are bringing up as a pet for their son. The little vixen is sad. The dog explains that she must resign herself to her situation and like him, make the best of a bad job. When the forester's son appears with a friend and teases the vixen, she gives him a sharp nip. The forester ties her up, and she is left in a state of complete dejection. Night falls, and the vixen dreams that she has been transformed into a beautiful young girl, but when day breaks, she is still a vixen. With the dawn, the forester's wife throws out food for the chickens. The vixen grabs their attention with a revolutionary harangue. She preaches a brave new feminist world, one not dominated by men or cockerels. The chickens, however, do not respond to her call to revolt and, in disgust, the vixen digs herself a grave, lies down and pretends to be dead. Suddenly she springs up and bites off the heads of the chickens, one after another. The forester's wife runs out in alarm. The vixen snaps her leash and escapes into the woods. ACT 2 Back in the forest, the vixen teases the badger, enlists the sympathy of the other animals, and when the badger goes off in a huff, moves, as she always intended to, into the badger's vacated earth. Meanwhile, at the village inn, the forester is playing cards with the schoolmaster, watched by the parson. There is general ribaldry. The forester teases the schoolmaster about his backwardness in courting his sweetheart. The parson quotes Latin, and it is not long before they tease the forester about the exploits of his pet fox. The drink goes to their heads, and the innkeeper advises the parson to leave before he scandalises his parishioners. The forester orders another beer, and the innkeeper says that one day he will get him to disclose the full details of his adventures with the vixen. The forester reacts crossly and leaves in a bad temper. It is night-time in the wood. The schoolmaster comes a little shakily down the road, lamenting his weakness for drink. The vixen peeps out from behind a sunflower, and the delighted schoolmaster takes her for the gypsy Terinka, a past love. In his ardour he topples over a fence and falls head first. Then the parson comes down the road and he, too, mistakes the vixen for Terinka, whom he also loved in his student days, taking the unjustified blame for her becoming pregnant. But the arrival of the forester puts an end to his reflections. The parson and the schoolmaster cling to each other, both afraid of where he might fire his gun. The forester says that he has seen the vixen slinking through the woods and that he is aiming to shoot her. Neither the schoolmaster nor the parson feels reassured. The vixen meets a handsome fox and tells him a romanticised story of her life. He offers her a rabbit he has killed. They kiss and fall in love. The animals whisper, even more so when the couple disappears into the vixen's earth, leaving the dragonfly to stand guard at the entrance. The owl positively bubbles with joy at this juicy bit of gossip. The forest resounds with pleasure. When they emerge, the vixen tells the fox that she is going to be a mother. A priest - the woodpecker - is sent for, and he marries them while the inhabitants of the forest celebrate in a paean of wordless joy. ACT 3 It is autumn. The forest is peaceful when Harasta, a peddler, appears on a poaching foray, a basket on his back. He spots a dead hare, killed by a fox, and is just about to pick it up when he catches sight of the forester, who greets him sarcastically. When questioned about whether he enjoys his lonely life, Harasta retorts that he is going to marry Terinka. The forester is cut to the quick by this news and covers his chagrin by setting a trap for the foxes near the dead hare. Then he goes off, leaving Harasta to laugh at his discomfiture. Watched by their parents, the fox cubs dance around the clumsily set trap, heedless of the danger. Harasta's song is heard in the distance, and all the animals hide, except for the vixen who amuses herself by leading him into a merry dance, which ends with Harasta falling headlong and skinning his nose. He gets up to see the fox cubs pulling the poultry out of his basket. He fires his gun at them and hits the vixen, who falls dead. In the garden of the inn, the forester drinks a beer with the schoolmaster. He is out of sorts because he has promised his wife a fur muff, but every time he goes to the vixen's earth it is empty. It is the day of Terinka's wedding, and the innkeeper's wife sniffs that she will get a new muff. A melancholy mood prevails, and feeling weighed down by his years, the forester leaves and goes off into the woods. Back in the clearing where he caught the vixen, the forester lingers, trying to find peace within himself. He ponders the eternal cycle of life in the forest where there are no endings, only new beginnings and where happiness is to be found if only man kew how to look for it. As he is falling asleep on the ground, with the animals all around, he sees a fox cub playing where he first saw the vixen. He tries to catch it, saying that he will make a better job of rearing it than he did its mother. But the hand closes on a frog. The wheel has turned full circle. The pensive forester lets his gun fall to the ground. |
Recorded live at the Theatre du Chatelet, June 1995 sung in Czech, with English sub-titles |
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