Germany Janáĉek, The Crafty Little Vixen: Soloists, Refrain and Additional refrain of Theater Münster, Youngsters’s refrain of Gymnasium Paulinum. Münster Sinfonieorchester / Golo Berg (conductor). Theater Münster, 28.6.2025. (DM-D)
The revolving set created for this manufacturing by Dorothee Curio was always in use. The area thus shifted seamlessly from varied out of doors settings and inside ones, together with an unlimited corridor with wealthy wood-panelled partitions adorned with looking trophies – fairly an abode for an in any other case modest Forester. Characters, each human and animal, would open doorways linking these distinct settings and thus stroll by them from one atmosphere to a different throughout the orchestral interludes between scenes, or inside the scenes themselves. Magdalena Fuchsbergeer’s preliminary directorial idea for the manufacturing appeared to be to have the occasions unfold because the Forester’s drunken nightmare. The creatures initially surrounding him in that nightmare have been people dressed as medical doctors and nurses, with lab coats; the mosquito biting the Forester right here grew to become a threatening vampire taking his time to get his fill of blood from the Forester’s throat whereas crouching over his chest. The Forester’s grandson and his good friend wore sports activities gear, typically the performers depicting animals wore full physique fits suggesting the animals, typically their human heads have been seen, typically not, and a few singing remained muffled by the masks in consequence. The fox and the vixen have been courting whereas having well mannered English afternoon tea at a café. The costumes designed for the foxes made them look extra like teddy bears other than the lengthy fox tails.
I might go on enumerating such impressions, however they did simply not add up, for me, to kind any type of coherent, cogent story. Most of the concepts have been imaginative, some witty, some sudden, however they didn’t merge or coalesce to kind a constant entire. And it isn’t sufficient to have the ability to say that the manufacturing did at the least not distract from the music. Removed from it, such a verdict is all the time a tragic one, as a result of the manufacturing is in fact half and parcel of any opera occasion that’s not explicitly introduced as a live performance efficiency.
Musically, the night was much more convincing. Conductor Golo Berg captured the idiosyncrasies of Janáĉek’s music very nicely. He achieved unity within the wealthy tapestry of interweaving sounds from the orchestra and the big ensemble of singers, making full use of the vary of quantity and density introduced within the rating. He thus allowed the music a excessive stage of playfulness acceptable to the opera’s plot (if not the manufacturing).
Berg proved to be delicate to the forged. Adriana Kučerová was excellent because the titular vixen. Her soprano was each wealthy and agile, nicely tailored to the calls for of the rating by way of arcs and sudden outbursts. Her duet with Wioletta Hebrowska because the Fox was a spotlight of the night. Hebrowska’s voice contrasted nicely with that of Kučerová, equally wealthy and mellow. Gregor Dalal sang the Forester, displaying a outstanding skill to make the passages of Sprechgesang come throughout as very musical certainly, reasonably than resorting to shouting. The musical achievement of the opposite soloists, the refrain and the youngsters’s refrain was of the very best high quality all through.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Featured Picture: Theater Münster’s The Crafty Little Vixen © Bettina Stöss
Manufacturing:
Director – Magdalena Fuchsberger
Set and Costumes – Dorothee Curio
Lighting designer – Jan Hördemann
Dramaturgy – Nikolaus Stenitzer
Refrain director – Anton Tremmel
Youngsters’s Refrain administrators – Rita Storck-Herbst, Jörg von Wensierski
Solid:
Vixen – Adriana Kučerová
Fox – Wioletta Hebrowska
Forester – Gregor Dalal
Forester’s Spouse – Yixuan Zhu
Pepik – Christina Holzinger
Frantik – Melanie Spitau
Cockerel – Yeaseul Angela Park
Parson – Kihoon Yoo
Schoolmaster – Adam Temple-Smith
Poacher (Harašta) – Johan Hyunbong Choi
Innkeeper – Ki-Hwan Nam
Innkeeper’s Spouse – Barbara Bräckelmann
Lapák (Canine) – Soyeon Lee
Badger – Kihoon Yoo
Mosquito – Suhyeok Kim
Jay – Yeaseul Angela Park
Owl – Chen-Han Lin
Woodpecker – Nino Jachvadze
Cricket / Grasshopper / Little frog – Gabriel Bettels
Vixen as a toddler – Anna Holschneider
