Detroit Opera's playful 'Cunning Little Vixen' is a welcome change of pace for the company
Detroit Opera journeys this weekend from the depths of darkness to a beloved work that's notably lighter in tone.
After last month's staging of the intense and dark “Breaking the Waves,” the company will be romping in the sunlight with the Detroit premiere of Leoš Janáček’s family-friendly “The Cunning Little Vixen.”
The human and animal worlds collide in this enchanting modern fable about a clever fox who tries to outwit her would-be captors. This production, first staged by the Cleveland Orchestra, uses projections and handcrafted animations by Walter Robot Studios to bring to life the visions first presented in a 1920s Czech comic strip. Detroit Opera's production, directed by Detroit Opera artistic director Yuval Sharon and conducted by musical director Roberto Kalb, takes the stage Saturday and May 17 and 19 at the Detroit Opera House.
“One of my main goals for Detroit Opera is for every production to have something about it that is a first something about it,” said Sharon. “In the case of ‘Breaking the Waves,’ it was the first time we featured a female composer on our stage. (Last season’s) ‘Ainadamar’ was the first Spanish-language opera that we did. Even doing a piece that is very familiar like ‘La Boheme,’ we rearranged the order of the acts. In the case of ‘Cunning Little Vixen,’ it’s the first time that the company has ever done Leoš Janáček, and he’s really one of the great opera composers.”
Kalb expressed enthusiasm for the music landing in the hands of his orchestra, describing it as “perfect” for them.
“It’s one of the most challenging pieces in the world or any repertoire, any era,” he said, “but also one of the most colorful ones and one of the most accessible to audiences. So I thought that it would be a challenge, but a very rewarding challenge for our musicians and something I wanted to embark on. It’s actually my first production since I was named music director. I haven’t conducted a production with the orchestra, so I’m really excited to take that challenge. It’s going to be great.”
Sharon said that after ‘Breaking the Waves,’ a show that asked audiences to go to some very dark places, a palate cleanser was needed, hence “Vixen.”
“We thought: ‘It would be great if it was a comedy, if it was lighthearted, something where we’d be laughing in rehearsal all the time, and share that kind of energy with our audience.'
‘Cunning Little Vixen’ is so warm, so humane,” he said. “Even though it’s about animals, it’s nevertheless really a look at humanity very deeply, full of brightness and color, and fast moving. It’s so engaging, and it’s part of a spring season that began with John Cage (composer of ‘Europeras 3 & 4,’ staged in March) and continued with ‘Breaking the Waves’ and now ‘Vixen.’
“That kind of journey feels like one that really shows you what the whole breadth of opera can be.”
Indeed, Detroit Opera has been on a renegade journey over the last four seasons, presenting consecutively game-changing works that challenge notions of what opera can be and to whom it can appeal.
The glory of “Vixen,” however? Kalb and Sharon say it’s simply meant to be enjoyed.
“Even though you’ll feel like it’s a beautiful piece, and you’re really happy, you will still have felt quite a profound experience at the end of the day,” said Kalb.
Sharon said there are takeaways relating to the natural world and humans’ relationships with animals.
“I’d love our audience to use this opportunity to meditate on their relationship to nature," said Sharon. I think so much about humanity’s view of nature and how we can’t help but put ourselves into nature all the time. We anthropomorphize animals. We see a fox and we give it human characteristics, but they have their own lives. Why is it we do that? And what can we learn about our own human nature when we look at capital-N Nature everywhere around us?”
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
'The Cunning Little Vixen'
Presented by Detroit Opera
7:30 p.m. Saturday and May 17, 2:30 p.m. May 19
Detroit Opera House
1526 Broadway, Detroit
$15 & up
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Opera stages light, family-friendly 'Cunning Little Vixen'
