Customer Reviews

Janácek - The Cunning Little Vixen / Nicholas Hytner · Sir Charles Mackerras · Thomas Allen · Eva Jenis · Tháâtre du Chatelet

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unknown to most opera goers, Janacek's brilliant fable reverses most of the genre's liabilities. There is no bombast; the plot moves quickly, the libretto -- cobbled together by the composer from a newspaper comic strip -- is touching, deft and profound; and the only diva in sight is shot long before the finale. The opera doesn't need excessive fancy, which this production sometimes supplies in overabundance, and the work's dark tone, its grounding in rural Moravian peasant life, is negated by the somewhat flouncy presentation and a poor translation that elicits laughter in the wrong places -- a much better English version exists. It's also unfortunate that the chorus is moved off-stage to favor dancers, which reduces the rollicking climax to the wedding scene (of course, Janacek himself had so often used off-stage choruses to memorable effect, but here the bustle of voices is needed). Nonetheless, this cyrstalline DVD (some of the images nearly convince us we're in a theater) gives us Thomas Allen as the ideal Forester, the great Czech singer Richard Novak as the Badger/Parson, mostly vivid set designs and colors, a rousing performance by Janacek expert Charles Mackerras, and the compact perfection of the opera itself. Now if only From the House of the Dead, Kat'ya Kabanova, Osud, and the rest of Janacek's singular operas would be released.

This is a beautifully produced and sung production of a seldom-seen opera--not as fine an opera as The Makropulos Case, perhaps, but still very worthwhile if you love, or even just like, Janacek. Aside from Thomas Allen (the gamekeeper), the cast was unfamiliar to me; Eva Jenis is a wonderful vixen. Recorded in high definition tv, so visually the quality is much better than most of the opera DVDs released so far.

This opera is for those who are tired of the standard repertoire. I was attracted to the Decca recording of this opera on discs, with Lucia Popp, because it was so unusual (cartoon animal and human characters, episodic anti-romantic story). Even though I found it highly intriguing, I could not sustain my concentration beyond the first act. I was attracted to this DVD because I was curious how the animal roles could be staged. The real stars here are Director Nicholas Hytner and Bob Crowley's vividly colorful sets. Some scenes are genuinely funny (the vixen killing the chicken). Even though I sustained concentration through two acts out of three, this is a very unique (and rare) production, of the kind you will rarely see in any opera house. Technically excellent, a strong buy recommendation (only 4 stars out of caution - try any other piece by Janacek first to see if you warm up to it).

This is a highly entertaining opera and for those unfamiliar with Janacek, it's a perfect place to start. The opera is playful, comic, mysterious, and in the end it is surprisingly moving. This is a lovely production and it has been produced with wit and imagination. The wonderful choreography is fully integrated into the action and adds an extra dimension to the work. Thomas Allen gives a sensitive reading as the gamekeeper. But the real star of the evening is Eva Jemis who gives an uninhibited and bravura performance as the vixen. My favorite scene was the "pickup" scene in which the vixen loses her virginity. The foxy couple goes through a rather anthropomorphic variation of animal courtship that is frightfully realistic and quite funny. This is Disney for grown-ups and maybe the kids as well. I was enthralled throughout this DVD and hopefully you will be too!

Janacek is steadily rising in the pantheon of 20th C opera composers, with more productions and more attention to his whole corpus of works. The Cunning Little Vixen is the latest success story; on the surface, a fairy tale based on a cartoon, featuring almost as much dance as singing, it would seem unlikely to be profound and emotionally compelling. But it is. The Huntsman, the principal character, stands and sings a concluding aria which is fuller of the love of life than anything I remember in any other opera of any era in any language! The orchestral music, as you'd expect if you know Janacek, is strangely original and "modern" and yet instantly accessible and enjoyable. There are two DVD productions of The Cunning Little Vixen, both well worth viewing and hearing. This is the one I prefer, both for the performance of the huntsman and for the charm of the costuming.

On repeated viewing I am struck by what I perceive to be the profound message of this work. The opera depicts two separate worlds: the human world and the animal world ("nature") which exist in parallel without any true communication or mutual understanding. Whenever humans do interact meaningfully with the animal world, the results are seemingly disastrous for the animals, but as the last scene with the frog closes a circle of three generations (of frogs), it is nature that has the last word. The opera is about human blindness/deafness to nature and about the price of this deficiency. The animals and insects in the opera are pretty cheerful and even minor disasters like the death of a mother does not leave a lasting mark on the orphans. The humans, however, are quite conflicted and lacking in their disappointing private lives, who in the final analysis go unnoticed by nature's inexorable rhythm. On some level these disappointments, when presented side by side to the animals' and insects' relentless pursuit of pleasure and procreation, can be seen as a punishment or a consequence of human's inability to be part of the wider realm of the animal kingdom. The character of the dog is an example of a domestic animal that left the "nature" world of the opera, and tied (literally) its fate with that of humans. He is presented in the opera as pathetic. I think the message is that the dog, like the humans, is deaf to its true nature, and pays the price - this characterization of the dog cannot be purely for comical purposes. The gamekeeper is struggling with the yearning to "nature", although he doesn't know how to express it other then by trying to subordinate it, sometimes violently. This yearning is almost sexualized in his "relationship" with the vixen, the dramatic center of the work. He is suffering as a result, and only at the end of the last scene we see him almost lost and surrounded by the swirling creatures of the forest, finally content like a baby.