Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden – Season 2025/2026  
“PŘÍHODY LIŠKY BYSTROUŠKY” (THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN)
Opera in three acts Libretto by the composer himself adapted from a novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek
Music by Leoš Janáček   
Sharp-Ears (Bystrouška) the Vixen VERA-LOTTE BOECKER
Gold-Stripe (Zlatohřbítek) the Fox MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ
Gamekeeper (Revírník) SVATOPLUK SEM
Gamekeeper‘s wife/owl NATALIA SKRYCKA
Schoolmaster/gnat FLORIAN HOFFMANN
Parson/badger DAVID OŠTREK
Harašta, a poacher CARLES PACHON
Lapák, a dog/woodpecker SANDRA LAAGUS
Cock ANNA SAMUIL
Mrs. Páskova/Chocholka, a hen ADRIANE QUEIROZ
Jay SONJA HERRANEN
Pásek, an innkeeper JUNHO HWANG
Staatsopernchor, Children’s choir of the Staatsoper
Staatskapelle Berlin
Cooperation with the Staatliche Ballett- und Artistikschule Berlin
Conductor Sir Simon Rattle
Chorus Master Dani Juris
Preparation Children’s choir Vinzenz Weissenburger
Choreography Pim Veulings
Director Ted Huffman
Associate director Sonoko Kamimura
Assistant director José Darío Innella, Marcin Łakomicki
Set design Nadja Sofie Eller
Costumes Astrid Klein
Light Bertrand Couderc
Berlin, 13 March 2026
I believe there is no opera more romantic, and above all more naturalistic, than The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček. It tells the story of a vixen who was captured by a gamekeeper as a cub, spent her youth amongst humans, fled to the forest where she started a family with a gallant fox, until her death at the hands of the poacher Harašta. It is like a comic strip, originally created by the poet Rudolf Těsnohlídek and the illustrator Stanislav Lolek for the Bohemian newspaper Lidové noviny, on which Janáček based his libretto. The fox is just as much at home in Berlin as the opera, which the composer himself regarded as his finest work. Walter Felsenstein’s legendary German-language production at the Komische Oper Berlin ran for more than 200 times. It premiered in 1956 and was filmed by Deutscher Fernsehfunk in Berlin-Adlershof in 1965. Katharina Thalbach staged it in 2000 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a blend of poetry, humour and depth, and this production also remained in the theatre’s repertoire for years. In 2011, a new production followed, again at the Komische Oper, by the then outgoing artistic director Andreas Homoki. It was not until the premiere on 28 February 2026 that the work was first performed at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in a production by Ted Huffman. In collaboration with the Staatliche Ballett- und Artistikschule Berlin, the evening opens with a tableau of children in colourful costumes against a green curtain, presumably intended to suggest a forest. There are green frogs galore, a snail, a bear, a dragonfly etc. As impressive as the acrobats are, they unfortunately contribute nothing to the meaning of the piece. They remain, right up to the end, a foreign element that seems artificially tacked on, because the director could not think of much else than to reduce the nature of the forest to a mound of earth in the middle of a white room (set design by Nadja Sofie Eller). More successful is the scene in the henhouse with ladders, in which the hens, aptly costumed by Astrid Klein, strut about alongside the colourfully dressed cock. The village tavern, by contrast, is more reminiscent of a sober university canteen. The acrobats are presumably to illustrate the romantic prelude, which, together with the other orchestral sections, makes up roughly a third of the work. This is where the superbly organised Staatskapelle Berlin comes into its own; under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, it sounds at times romantically dreamy, at times dance-like and buoyant, and in any case rhythmically accentuated. The conductor has been familiar with the score for decades and thus brings to a brilliant conclusion the cycle of the composer’s works he has exclusively built up over the last 15 years at the Staatsoper, following From the House of the Dead, Káťa Kabanová, Jenůfa, The Makropulos Affair and The Excursions of Mr. Brouček. Alongside the Staatsopernchor, the Children’s choir of the Staatsoper makes a significant contribution, with some members taking on small solo roles such as the boys who annoy the she-fox, or the cricket, grasshopper and frog. Vera-Lotte Boecker is, both visually and vocally, a perfect cunning little vixen, whom she sings with a light, silvery soprano voice that is agile and expressive, whilst at the same time appearing youthfully innocent. The conductor’s wife, Magdalena Kožená, is an idiomatic, mature fox with a rich mezzo-soprano voice, though her high notes tend to fall a little short. Their duet in the middle of the work becomes the musical highlight, framed by the poetic, idiomatic monologues of the gamekeeper Svatopluk Sem at the beginning and end of the evening. His somewhat rough, dramatic baritone strikes a fine balance between down-to-earth, rustic authenticity and naive romanticism of nature. Florian Hoffmann as the schoolmaster and David Oštrek as the parson evoke the men’s sense of isolation in the piece with light, bright tones and deep, dark ones. The two singers also take on the animal roles of gnat and badger, which are in the same vocal range. The same applies to Natalia Skrycka as the gamekeeper’s wife and as the owl with her warm mezzosoprano voice, whilst Carles Pachon contributes a devious Harašta with his baritone. It remains to be seen whether the production will hold its own in the repertoire. Amidst opera houses’ budget constraints and unimaginative stylisation, it seems like a stopgap solution. Unlike Katharina Thalbach’s naturalistic production, it is not suitable for children. Photo Monika Rittershaus