THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN

The Cunning Little Vixen is a classic modernist opera. A multi-layered parable of the inevitable cycles of nature, birth and death, it is striking yet poignant. Jonathan Dove’s adaptation for chamber forces exposes Janacek’s remarkably modern conception: tessellations of lithe and sinuous fragments of music drive the circle of life.

Julie Goodwin, acclaimed star of high-profile national tours of West Side Story (2010-11) and The Phantom of the Opera (2007-9), leads a cast of sexy foxes, bitchy hens and diva dogs in director Kate Gaul and conductor Jack Symonds’s lean, modernist production, performed in a new, tasteful, English translation. Vixen has been known to inspire romantic nostalgia and nature-worship but here Gaul and Symonds are bringing her into the twenty-first century.

“I can’t sit and watch all this conservatism… I’d rather bury myself alive”- Vixen