Canellakis & Janácek: The Cunning Fox

Karina Canellakis, chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, is once again diving into Leoš Janáček's opera oeuvre. This year it is the turn of the sly little fox. Heart-warming.

Fairy tale?

We can ask ourselves whether the 'youth opera' The sly little fox is actually a fairy tale, and also whether it is a youth opera at all. All sorts of singing animals feature in the work, but the relationship between nature and man is central. A fox cannot be tamed and therefore constantly challenges the human world. But the composer's message is that nature, like man himself, is subject to an eternal cycle of dying and being born.

Old Janáček as a Modernist

Janáček wrote The Sly of the Fox in 1924, when he was 67 years old. His vocal language is partly based on the Czech and Moravian speech rhythms, a technique the composer had originally learnt from Wagner and Moesorgsky as well as from Debussy. But despite the dialogue form, it is actually the lyrical-dramatic cantabile that dominates the vocal soundscape, with grandiose symphonic sections. This, in combination with strong rhythmic passages and surprising changes of time, makes him one of the great modernists of the years between the two world wars. Principal conductor Karina Canellakis continues her Janáček cycle with this heart-warming Fox.

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