The Hens, the Cock, and the Operatic Fox: Vulpine “Voice” in Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky

Author(s): Clark, J.W. | Abstract: Leos Janacek’s 1924 opera Přihody liskyBystrousky (The Cunning Little Vixen) epitomizes themusical “animal play,” a dramatic form wherein thepresence of nonhuman animals indexes non-seriousness,whimsicality, and childishness. Bystrouska situates itstitular fox within a folkloric tradition, deriving stereotypesfrom Aesopian and Reynardian “animal fable.” I contend thatsuch performances of foxiness are necessarily zoopoliticalin that they characterize a group traditionally excludedfrom the “political community of humans” (Luduena 2010).Like other problematic performances of “Others,” musicaldepictions of foxes rely on preexisting notions of species,and often exoticize, infantilize, and generalize theirsubjects. Following literary scholar Susan McHugh’s callto construct a proper “narrative ethology” to investigatehow “forms of representation matter to the development oftheories of species life” (McHugh 2011), I argue for theserious examination of how musical representation mightharm those we presume to voice.