I had never seen a performance of Leos Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen and when I learned it was part of the 2004-2005 Lyric Opera season I was truly looking forward to it. I wasn’t disappointed.
Lyric’s realization of Janáček’s work is absolutely charming. The Cunning Little Vixen or Liska Bystrouska—presumably “Vixen Quick-Ears” in the original Czech—was derived from a graphic novel. That’s an illustration from the original graphic novel down at the lower right corner of the post. The work was first performed in 1923 and is an Aesop-like story that takes place in a world in which talking animals and human beings live together and interact.
Two things struck me about his work. The first is Janáček’s incredible ability to evoke emotions: joy, love, sorrow. I had the feeling that in every scene he achieved precisely the effect that he was looking for. The second is the human scale of the work. I don’t mean the length—at 90 minutes it’s very approachable. What I mean is that the emotions are human-scale emotions. The joy is simple happiness rather than ecstasy. Love is genuine and warm but is not grand passion. And there’s sorrow here, too, but not the depths of despair. There are no gods or heroes here. But there are human beings and animals living their lives in a world that they love.
If there are messages in The Cunning Little Vixen they are human-scale, too. Life goes on. The world is beautiful.
The season so far (best to worst): Das Rheingold, The Cunning Little Vixen, Aida, Don Giovanni.
