Severance Hall is generally known for high culture when the Cleveland Orchestra is onstage. But, for the next week, the orchestra is going to be accompanied by cartoons.
It’s part of an unorthodox production of a 90-year-old opera — The Cunning Little Vixen by Czech composer Leos Janácek. When the show debuted in 1924, the cast of animal characters were portrayed by singers in costumes. In this new production, live actors interact with animated woodland creatures, that are projected on three giant video screens.
ideastream’s David C. Barnett attended a dress rehearsal of this new Cunning Little Vixen, last night, and joined Tony Ganzer with some more background on how this mash-up of modern technology and old opera came off.