The Cunning Little Vixen

The Independent“An inspired expression of intricate, child’s-eye truthfulness...” An inspired expression of this work’s intricate, child’s-eye truthfulness. The stars of the evening are Anna Grevelius and Alfie Boe, as Varvara and Vanya: one couldn’t imagine a more spirited pair of young lovers, or a sweeter vocal match...

this is london“The production still has power to move...” Now 20 years old, Bill Bryden’s naively endearing production of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen is looking its age. So what better way of injecting new life into it than by engaging leading Czech interpreter Charles Mackerras to conduct it...

The Telegraph“Sir Charles Mackerras was conducting. Need one say more?...” Bill Bryden’s production, designed by William Dudley, may be 20 years old, but it doesn’t look its age. Chief among its virtues is its fine balance between Disneyish whimsy, sophisticated ballet mécanique and pantheistic ecstasy...

Whatsonstage.com“It seems a little flea-bitten and tired...” There’s always a danger of the twee factor in Janacek’s tale of woodland folk and Bryden falls easily into Wind in the Willows whimsy, with a host of rabbits, insects and fox cubs straight out of a school play...

Guardian“It is beginning to creak a little and to look, just a bit foxed...” The details of the plot – not the most complex, in all honesty – are sometimes unclear; set pieces such as the Vixen's terrorising of the farmyard hens or her ruthless eviction of the Badger from his home seem confused...

The Times“Janácek would have approved...” Emma Matthews offers an impressive house debut as the Vixen herself: a feisty feminist, red in tooth and claw, yet with a touching vulnerability at the core of her bright, high soprano...

The Stage“A lack of focus to set against considerable merits... ” The real magic of the natural world as presented in Janacek’s score is only intermittently realised. The inn scenes, full of a sense of nostalgia, loss and human disappointment, need some visual tightening...

MusicOMH“The whole show looks too cute for its own good...” There is little sense of danger and much of what Janacek was trying to express, that nothing can stand in the way of nature and we are all mortal, is lost...

Financial Times“Not yet reviewed”

Time Out“Not yet reviewed”