Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
The Cunning Little Vixen, classical
Claire Booth as Vixen Sharp-Ears in The Cunning Little Vixen: ‘Her warm, vigorous soprano matches the energy and allure she brings to the role.' Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Claire Booth as Vixen Sharp-Ears in The Cunning Little Vixen: ‘Her warm, vigorous soprano matches the energy and allure she brings to the role.' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The Cunning Little Vixen; Cantatas for the Soul; Ariadne auf Naxos – review

This article is more than 9 years old
Garsington Opera, Wormsley; Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House, London
Claire Booth was a force of nature as the vixen in Janáček's opera, while Iestyn Davies led an evening of soul-searching

It's hard to imagine a more perfect setting for The Cunning Little Vixen, that most sylvan of operas, than Garsington's startlingly light and transparent pavilion. The mighty trees and delicate shrubs outside become part of the scenery, and birdsong pours across the broad Buckinghamshire landscape right into the building, adding a magical descant to Janácek's already ecstatic, luminous score.

But while the stage is alive with all manner of woodland creatures hopping, jumping and twitching, this is not a cutesy Beatrix Potter-like tale. Death, unrequited love and thwarted passion lurk in the undergrowth. Those chirpy animals and insects are altogether more human and sympathetic than the men with whom they share their bosky world – a Forester, Priest and Schoolmaster, all preoccupied with their own failures and disappointments.

One of the many successes of Daniel Slater's admirable new production is his focus both on this dichotomy and on the psycho-sexual nature of the piece, bringing to life a character who normally lives in the furtive memories of the men – Terynka, the woman the Forester still pines for after his marriage and for whom the Schoolmaster longs but will lose to Harašta, the poacher. Her character becomes entwined with that of the Vixen, the fearless heroine, and is embodied in dancer Chiara Vinci, who beguiles with Maxine Braham's sensitive choreography.

There are some wonderfully imaginative costumes in designer Robert Innes Hopkins's animal kingdom; insect wings made from broken umbrellas and egg whisks; chickens kitted out in mackintoshes and big, retro spectacles; a tiny frog in wellington boots and a room-to-grow raincoat. But his set is too boxy and clunky to truly reflect the natural splendour that lies just outside the door.

There's nothing clunky about the playing and singing, though. Conductor Gary Walker draws moments of great beauty from the Garsington orchestra, and the athletic central performance from Claire Booth as Vixen Sharp-Ears is truly sensational, her warm, vigorous soprano matching the energy and allure she brings to the role. The Vixen is always feisty but Booth has her represent all women exploited by men – and her bite is devastating.

Chief among the hapless males is her captor the Forester, big-voiced and yet vulnerable in baritone Grant Doyle's fine portrayal. Tenor Timothy Robinson makes the perfect timid, defeated Schoolmaster and Joshua Bloom impresses as Harašta the poacher, while Victoria Simmonds is a delightful mustachioed Fox, father of the Vixen's hilarious dozen tumbling cubs.

This being nature in the raw, sex is never far away, and certainly never out of the mind of Lapák, the dog (Anna Harvey), or the Cock (Alice Rose Privett). The willy gags get a bit tiresome until the Vixen kills the Cock with a savagery that makes all the men in the audience wince and cross their legs. You don't mess with this heroine.

Minds were on much higher things at the Wigmore Hall last week when the peerless countertenor Iestyn Davies joined John Butt's agile Dunedin Consort for an evening of soul-searching alto cantatas, the dark, pungent strings of the Consort throwing into sharp relief the gloriously pure, sweet tone of Davies's ravishing voice.

From the start, players and singer took the ground from under our feet with Johann Christoph Bach's daring harmonic progressions in his cantata Ach, dass ich wassers gnug hätte, before moving to JS Bach's sublime Widestehe doch der sunde, its crunchy dissonances relished by the band. Over time, Davies's sound has become richer and warmer, with a creamy consistency right through the register, beautifully displayed both here and throughout the final, consolatory Vernügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, or "Contented peace, beloved delight of the soul", an apt description for an exquisite evening.

In Levels of Life, Julian Barnes's unflinching account of his grief after the death of his wife, he writes how the seemingly absurd nature of opera suddenly began to make sense to him: "Its main function is to deliver the characters as swiftly as possible to the point where they can sing of their deepest emotions. Opera cuts to the chase – as death does."

Anyone in the audience at Covent Garden last week for the revival of Christof Loy's exuberant production of Ariadne auf Naxos would surely agree. The final scene of Strauss's "opera within an opera" cuts to the chase with a love duet of stupendous proportions. It proved a triumph for Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, making her role debut as Ariadne, opposite the ever-reliable German-Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, as Bacchus. Mattila positively glowed as the distraught heroine, revived by sudden, intense love, her voice radiant, her emotion deep.

Canadian soprano Jane Archibald, making her ROH debut as an admirably coquettish Zerbinetta, sang divinely with an impressively secure coloratura, though the voice was sometimes just too small to be heard above a Covent Garden orchestra on top form. And this being Strauss, there has to be a "trouser" role for a soprano, but there can be no Glyndebourne-like controversy over Romanian mezzo Ruxandra Donose's stylish portrayal of the Composer.

Antonio Pappano chose this fine production to make his debut as music director in 2002. The shouts of acclaim for him last week confirmed just what a canny choice that had been.

Star rating (out of 5)
The Cunning Little Vixen ****
Cantatas for the Soul *****
Ariadne auf Naxos ****

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed