Columns linked to Jamie Manton

Jamie Manton’s New Production of The Cunning Little Vixen at t...

Sam Smith

Composed between 1921 and 1923, Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen is based on the serialised novella Liška Bystrouška by Rodolf Těsnohlídek of 1920. This first appeared in the newspaper Lidové noviny, with illustrations by Stanislav Lolek, and Janáček adapted its words to arrive at the final libretto for the opera. A more literal translation of the Czech title would be Tales of Vixen Sharp-Ears, and the story tells of the...