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There is no other opera quite like The Cunning Little Vixen, which was inspired by a comic strip and presents episodes in the life of a female fox, Sharp-Ears, from her childhood through captivity, escape, maturity, childbearing, old age, and violent death, making way for a new generation. There is a fine balance of cute and funny elements and hard-edged realism in the story, which combines human and animal characters, with several singers doubling animal and human roles. Under a Walt Disneyish surface, the opera reflects deeply on the continuity of life, its beauty and conflicts. The music is bright, energetic, and endowed with an often ethereal beauty. Sir Charles Mackerras, generally recognized as the ultimate Janácek conductor of our time, gives his usual first-class performance, aided by a well-selected cast and important contributions by director Nicholas Hytner and designer Bob Crowley. Sharp-Ears is not only cuddly and anthropomorphic, attuned to nature, capable of love, and even maternal, she is also clever, mischievous, and utterly unscrupulous, willing to massacre a whole flock of chickens when the opportunity arrives. In short, one of opera's great, ambiguous female characters and one of the most difficult to portray. Eva Jenis does a marvelous job, as do Hana Mutillo as her foxy lover and Thomas Allen in the leading human role. Some of the music's best moments are wordless, as might be expected in an opera with more animals than humans in its cast. Much of the production's attraction depends on the dancers, costumed as a dog, a frog, a mosquito, chickens, dragonflies, etc. Being danced by humans, these varied species are all of roughly the same size, but clever costuming makes their identities generally clear. Particularly impressive is a mosquito who has a red-tipped hypodermic needle for a nose. --Joe McLellan
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