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Oh How Cunning!
New York Phil Presents A Visionary Forest Opera, The Cunning Little Vixen
The New York Philharmonic and Music Director Alan Gilbert will present their exciting and magical interpretation of Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. With an army of soloists, a children’s chorus, and an orchestra, the fantastical forest opera will transform Avery Fisher Hall through costume, scenery, and musicality into a thrilling world populated by woodland creatures.
From June 22rd through the 25th, Gilbert and company tell a story of relationships thru love, the cycle of life and how man and nature intermingle via an orphaned fox cub and a barrage of other quirky characters.
Originally based on a comic strip, The Cunning Little Vixen uses over thirty adult and child roles to narrate a tale about a witty fox raised by a forester, a drunken mosquito, an unfortunate poacher, a sticky little frog and many other woodland creatures.
The characters are animals, but it really is profoundly about the human condition, said Gilbert. And the concept and images that Doug [Fitch] has come up with are so powerful and so true to the spirit of the piece that I think this will be an important production of this landmark opera.
With such a wide range of roles, production director Doug Fitch had arguably the most important role in designing the punk inspired and recycled attire and creating the surrounding mystical forest that reaches into the audience on a runway. A supplementary imperative piece to this opera is the Orchestra who will perform among a garden of 20 foot high sunflowers.
Janáček manifests his acute understanding of the human world by composing an opera from an animal perspective, said Fitch. I think the difference he emphasizes is the unfortunate side of self-consciousness, clung to by humans and not even recognized by animals. There are key moments in this fable-like story, as when the vixen turns into, or rather, is seen as, a woman — even though she clearly remains a fox.
All in their debut with New York Philharmonic, the leading cast includes soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian as Vixen, baritone Alan Opie as Forester, mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand as Fox, and tenor Keith Jameson as the drunken Mosquito and Schoolmaster.
In addition to nightly showings, The Cunning Little Vixen will be broadcasted live during the June 23rd performance on the Orchestra’s national and international radio program The New York Philharmonic This Week. The radio concert program is a 52-week series hosted by actor Alec Baldwin.
More event info here.