The Cunning Little Vixen, opera review: young stars of the future shine in a foxy fable

With Lionel Friend, the British Youth Opera could not have made a better choice for its new music director, says Barry Millington
Stars of tomorrow? The Cunning Little Vixen
Clive Barda
Barry Millington9 September 2015

Approaching its 30th anniversary, British Youth Opera offers unrivalled opportunities to talented students to gain rehearsal and performance experience. The annual “summer” showcase, in the refurbished Peacock Theatre, represents only a fraction of its development programme, but continues to afford audiences (as well as agents and critics) a chance to hear the stars of the future.

This season Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen was presented under the baton of the experienced Lionel Friend, demonstrating that the BYO could not have made a better choice for its new music director. As Sharp Ears, the eponymous vixen, Hazel McBain uses her attractive tone resource- fully, while Golden Mane, the fox that falls for her, is sung with assurance by Katie Coventry. Kieran Rayner is a sympathetic Forester, while William Wallace reveals the hidden emotional depths of the Schoolmaster with a plangent outburst in the forest.

The parts of Sharp Ears’s cubs are taken by children from the excellent Southend Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs: a future generation’s intake for the BYO perhaps?

Stuart Barker’s production, using puppets designed by Simon Bejer, is along traditional lines but provoked a few chuckles. Friend’s conducting of the Southbank Sinfonia in Jonathan Dove’s chamber orchestration kept the action moving, at the same time breathing life into Janacek’s inspiring and touching fable.

Vixen plays in tandem with Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea and Holst’s Savitri, until September 12 (0844 412 4322, sadlerswells.com)

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

MORE ABOUT