The Cunning Little Vixen by Janáček, Alkaen (2022/2023), Ohjannut Joan Anton Rechi,, Musiikinjohto Guillermo García Calvo, Diego Martin-Etxebarria, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany

A forest ranger captures a young vixen and lets her grow up on his farm with the other pets. But she doesn't feel like subordinating herself to the laws of human animal husbandry. She certainly doesn't want to one day warm the hands of the gracious lady forester as a fur muff. The fox manages to escape. In the woods, the confident young lady who calls herself smartass secures a home by driving the old badger out of his den. Her beauty and manners attract Mr. Goldmane, a gallant fox with whom the fox falls head over heels. The early marriage is followed by a rich blessing of children. How carefree it is in the animal world, while people spend their days fretting and grieving for missed opportunities instead of hugging each other lovingly and enjoying existence. Finally, a poacher destroys the cheerful idyll of the Fuchs family. He kills the fox, but she has long since passed on her life-affirming energy to her children, opening a new chapter in the coexistence of humans and animals. Leoš Janáček was inspired to write this opera in the early 1920s by an illustrated serial story about the experiences of the Sly Vixen. Janáček, himself a great lover of nature, describes becoming and passing away as an eternal cycle that nature and human beings follow in equal measure. Jaroslav Vogel wrote in his Janáček biography: "Of all the master's operas, the Cunning Little Vixen always be particularly dear and valuable to us as an embodiment of optimism and a sunny attitude to life, as a delightfully carefree excursion of the imagination - as the Czech Midsummer Night ."