Leos Janácek: Das Schlaue Füchslein [Video]

The late Walter Felsenstein cultivated a longstanding reputation for productions of classic operas that he adapted not for the stage but for the screen - mounting the productions in closed studios. This particular release features a work of that nature, performed and filmed in black-and-white at the Studio Adlershof in Berlin. The opera in question is Leoš Janá?ek's +The Cunning Little Vixen (AKA +Das Schlaue Füchslein, 1920), a fantasy featuring animal characters, inspired by a serialized novella in the Lidové noviny newspaper. This version stars Irmgard Arnold as The Vixen, Manfred Hopp as The Fox, Josef Burgwinkel as The Badger and Werner Enders as The Dog. Felseinstein did the staging, art direction and screenplay, and also directed; Rudolf Heinrich designed the sets (with Herbert Michel) and the costumes (with Gundolf Foizik). Václav Neumann conducts.