Germany Janáĉek, The Cunning Little Vixen: Soloists, Chorus, Extra chorus, and Youth and Children’s chorus of Oldenburg State Theatre, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester / Vito Cristofaro (conductor). Oldenburg State Theatre, 2.7.2025. (DM-D)
The set for this production, designed by Lena Hiebel, was simple and functional: the vast stage space was delimited by a frame of walls, left, right and at the back, painted in a slightly patterned off-white, and serving as screens for projections of light, depending on the plot. For the forest scenes, the projections were in shades of green. For the interior scenes with humans, a dark wood-panelled rear wall was lowered from the fly tower, reducing the space even further and giving the human environment an almost claustrophobic element. For the scenes in nature, a circular structure covered most of the floor, which could be moved by the performers (rather than having a structure on a mechanical revolve). Hiebel was also in charge of the costumes, which gave brightly colourful, imaginative and playful shape to the animal characters, never leaving any doubt as to what kind of creatures they were. Some of the animal head-masks were translucent, allowing a peek at the human face through or under the animal head, at least from some lighting angles. At times, the singers of Vixen and Fox removed their animal heads altogether.
The design achieved a high level of clarity for the characters and the plot. First and foremost, the world of the animals came across as a universe of its own, with its own rules and characteristics, idiosyncratic, playful, with an unquestioned human angle on what animals might be like. This universe and its characters were endearing. The human world, on the other hand, was darker, bleak, the characters lost, without much hope, all without exaggeration. The transparency of some of the animal heads suggested parallels between those two distinct worlds. Altogether, Mélanie Huber’s production trusted the plot and the music and worked well on that very basis.
The strength of the resident company of Oldenburg State Theatre was reflected by their ability to offer different singers for the major parts at different performances. Aksel Daveyan was a strong Forester, with very musical Sprechgesang. Stephanie Hershaw as Vixen impressed with her very clear voice, securely meeting the challenges of the complex score. Anna Dowsley’s voice (Fox) contrasted well with Hershaw’s in the long duet, with a particularly rich lower register. Seumas Begg (Schoolmaster) and Irakli Atanelishvili (Parson) combined vocal beauty with appropriately ironic characterisation. The cast and chorus members with solo roles as humans and animals added to the overall ensemble effort to good effect. Conductor Vito Cristofaro was very sensitive to the singers’ needs, and relished the many orchestral solos, allowing the strings, above all, to revel in beautiful tunes, without however indulging in sentimentality.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Production:
Director – Mélanie Huber
Set and Costumes – Lena Hiebel
Lighting designer – Steff Flächsenhaar
Choreography – Joanne Willmott
Dramaturgy – Antje Müller
Chorus director – Thomas Bönisch
Youth and Children’s chorus director – Marija Jokovic
Cast:
Vixen – Stephanie Hershaw
Fox – Anna Dowsley
Forester – Aksel Daveyan
Forester’s Wife / Woodpecker – Dorothee Bienert
Pepik – Lea Bublitz
Frantik – Julia Wagner
Parson / Badger – Irakli Atanelishvili
Schoolmaster – Seumas Begg
Harashta – Paul Brady
Innkeeper – Seung Jin Park
Innkeeper’s Wife – Esther Vis
Lapak (Dog) – Seumas Begg
Cricket – Selma Brok
Grasshopper – Caroline Nicoul
Frog – Danylo Salo
Hen – Friederike Hansmeier
Cockerel – Mykola Pavlenko
Owl – Sharon Starkmann
Mosquito – Sandro Monti
Jay – Gabriela Heesch
Vixen as a child – Charlotte Rabbels