SynopsisAct IThe animals’ enjoyment of a spring afternoon is interrupted by the Forester pausing to take a nap on his way home. Soon the children’s curiosity gets the better of them, and they return to their games. When the Forester wakes, the young Vixen, out in the forest on her own for the first time, catches his eye, and so he catches her.

Time passes.

In the Forester’s yard the Vixen endures the unwelcome attentions first of the Forester’s dog, then of his children, and dreams of returning to the forest. The next morning, outraged by the Cock’s exploitation of the hens, she attempts to stir up a rebellion, calling for equality and freedom, but eventually, frustrated by the hens’ stupidity, she kills them all. In the chaos, she escapes.

Act IIHaving returned to the forest, the Vixen unites the massed forest creatures and forces the rich, selfish badger to leave his set, and appropriates it for herself. Meanwhile, a new Parson arrives at the local inn, where the Forester is teasing the Schoolmaster about his hopeless love for the beautiful girl Terynka. Hurt, the Schoolmaster taunts him about the lost Vixen. All three, having had too much to drink, set off home through the forest. The school-master mistakes a sunflower for Terynka and is tricked by the Vixen. The parson bitterly recalls his betrayal by a beautiful girl in his student days. Both are startled by the Forester’s gunfire as he searches drunkenly for the Vixen.

Some time later the Vixen meets a handsome Fox and things progress rather faster than she might have expected.

Act IIIThe Forester encounters the poacher Harasta, who tells him that he is about to marry the beautiful Terynka. They see a dead hare, which the Forester believes has been killed by the Vixen. He sets a trap for her.

The Vixen and the Fox, having brought their cubs out to play, discover the trap and ridicule humans’ underesti-mation of their intelligence. When the poacher returns to steal the hare, the Vixen tries to outwit him too but gets carried away in her defiance and is shot.

In the inn, the Schoolmaster is depressed because it is the day that Terynka is to marry Harasta. The Forester tries to cheer him up. Having discovered the Vixen’s empty den and so believing his trap has caught her, he looks forward to giving his wife a new fox fur muff. When the Innkeeper’s wife lets slip that Terynka is sporting just such an item, the Forester, realising what has happened, abruptly sets off for the forest.

He truly appreciates its beauty for the first time, and sees the animals in a new light. Finally, he encounters the Vixen’s daughter, ‘the spitting image of her mother’...

Presents

in

Also Starring

Ballet Chorus

Children’s Chorus

Offstage Chorus

Helena Clark-MaxwellJanice Chui Sarah Morris Imi Myers

Composed byLeoŠ JanÁČek

Production ManagerSamuel McDermott

Publicist/APTamsin Lim

Programme Design/APCraig Slade

Publicity DesignElla Jackson

RepetiteursAdam Cigman-Mark, John Dilworth, Ben Comeau, Keval Shah, Simon Nathan, Quintin Beer

Production ElectriciansMichael Darvell, Paul Gotch, Alistair Cannon, Ian Leith, Ian Baker, Tim Palmer, Sarah Ward, David Stansby, Duncan Wood

Assistant Stage ManagerVicky Simons

Child CastingYoung Actors Cambridge

Costume DesignerKate Massey

Costume DesignerMaria Bruder

Costume DesignerMolly Richards

Deputy Stage ManagerSimon Adcock

Education Officer/APGeorgia Way

Lighting/Website DesignAdam Gray

Make-Up ArtistSummer Callow

Make-Up ArtistZoe Higgins

Make-Up DesignerTalia Robertson

Marketing Manager/APJames Proctor

PhotographerThurstan Redding

Set DesignerDemi Jong

Stage ManagerQian Shi

Associate ProducerNatasha Brice

Asst. Musical DirectorNadanai Laohakunakorn

Assistant DirectorLizzie Schenk

Assistant ProducerHanna Grzeskiewicz

DirectorCharlie Risius

ChoreographerHelena Clark-Maxwell

Musical DirectorWilliam Cole

ProducerLeo Cairns

TheCunning

LittleVixen

VixenHéloÏse Werner

Schoolmaster/MosquitoParson/BadgerMichael Mofidian James Robinson

HarastaJack Lawrence-Jones

ForesterJonathan Hyde

FoxHarriet Flower

Innkeeper’s Wife Forester’s WifeHarriet Sykes Katya Borisova

Onstage ChorusBethany Partridge

LapakHelen Daniels

FrantikJenny Ashworth

WoodpeckerKatie Braithwaite

CockerelBonnie Cooper

ChocholkaJanneke Dupré

Onstage ChorusHelen Charlston

InnkeeperJonathan Pacey

PepikSophie Horrocks

Onstage ChorusHetty Gullifer

Rachael DarlisonImogen Sebba

Kathryn CollarKatie Pleming

Rebecca Greensill

Jess BallanceRachel Ambrose-Evans

Amelia DrewJoanna Markbreiter

Kiki Betts-Dean

Eleanor WarnerEva Leggatt

Louis BicklerChris Loyn

Alexander Peter

SJ SenanayakeNils GreenhowJamie RobertsPeter Lidbetter

Laurens Macklon

Rob BrocklehurstJoachim CasselElliot FitzgeraldNicholas Doig

Gareth ThomasKit Preston-Bell

Arun AustinOliver Chesterman

Eleanor JarahEmily Nethsingha

Megan PhillipsAgnes Pethers

Agatha PethersAoife Murphy

Musical Director’s NotesThe Cunning Little Vixen presents unique challenges for singers. Rather than traditional operatic divisions of recitative and aria, the opera is fluently constructed, with the vocal lines closely mirroring the speech-rhythms of his native Czech. To sing Janáček, you have to match and respond to these speech-rhythms, and we have sought to do the same with our English translation – to find a way of singing this wonderful music with the ease and fluidity required to bring it to life.

Yet the opera is not just about the singers on stage – from the extraordinary opening bars that plunges the listener straight away into the sounds and colours of the forest, the orchestra enrich the narrative with a series of powerful orchestral interludes. We are performing the opera in a reduced orchestration by Jonathan Dove, which sacrifices some of the richness of the original scoring for a different sound, fresh and clean – Janáček the proto-modernist rather than Janáček the romantic. The offstage chorus, the voices of the forest, add another layer to the sound of the opera, and at their appearance in Act II it seems as if the whole forest is singing.

Endlessly inventive and profoundly moving, it has been a great joy to live with this music for a few months. I hope you enjoy the performance.

William Cole

OrchestraLaura RickardMaya Amin-SmithVictor SunRobbie Stanley-SmithMarianne SchofieldAdam PowellWill BallOliver PashleyTamsin AlexanderHannah BellEsther Osorio-WhewellMalachy FrameMike BuchananBen GlassbergAnne DenholmQuintin Beer

Violin IViolin II

Viola/ViolinCello

Double BassFlute/Piccolo

Oboe/Cor AnglaisClarinet/Bass Clarinet

Bassoon/ContrabassoonHorn I

Horn IITrumpet

TrombonePercussion

HarpKeys

Director's NotesThe Cunning Little Vixen may well be the only major opera ever to have been based on a comic strip. Despite these humble beginnings, not helped by a title which could have come straight out of the Disney back catalogue, it is a stunning piece of theatre. Its sprawling plot, which takes in so much of life – growing up and growing old, falling in love and falling out of it, discovering the future and being unable to forget the past – and its hugely varied ensemble of characters – human, animal, singer, dancer, child – have made it both utterly exhilarating and utterly terrifying to direct.

Even writing these notes is a challenge because the Vixen is not a beast to be easily pinned down (as you will see). When we started rehearsals with a series of workshops to play around with how we were going to portray animals on stage without, essentially, looking too silly, and thought about what exactly moving in an ‘animalistic’ way involved, we realised that the human/animal distinction in the movement work being done was not at all clear, but that in fact there was a large grey area in the middle, and it is there that we have continued exploring. Just as our set does not aim at being a naturalistic rendering of a forest, our actors do not aim at imitating exactly the way their animals move. At times the animals behave in very 'human' ways – they have a wedding ceremony, there's some political public-speaking, the Vixen meets a depressed dog who expresses his inner angstthrough art. But at other times you're reminded that fundamentally these creatures are wild, and capable of being savage and dangerous.

The opera is a patchwork of the lives of an ensemble of complex, interesting characters, animal and human, all of which are interlinked and speak to and echo each other in a rich variety of ways. To explain what it is about, or what my ‘directorial vision’ for it is, in a short paragraph is nigh on impossible, and rather beside the point. Ultimately we are simply aiming to tell the story. And, although when you stop to think about it opera really is a completely preposterous art form, it is also a completely wonderful way to do it. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we have enjoyed doing it!

Charlie Risius

Choreographer’s NotesI was thrilled at the prospect of working on such a unique and beautiful opera. Creating the choreography for The Cunning Little Vixen gave me the opportunity to produce more than just strictly balletic pieces. By using the entire repertoire of classical ballet steps as a springboard, and thanks to the patience of my dancers, we were able to tease these movements into new ones and fashion a graceful yet animalistic style, specifically tailored to this opera. Striking the right balance between ‘human’ and ‘animal’ was a challenge, especially when it came to deciding on the personality of each animal the dancers represent. The two Blue Dragonflies, for example, have a mischievousness and slight arrogance about them, as they flit in and out of the opera, as if stitching together some of the most poignant scenes. Watch out for the dream sequence, in which our Vixen and Fox dancers play out the Vixen’s fantasy of falling in love and escaping the wicked Forester. I hope very much that you enjoy the performance!

Helena Clark-Maxwell

Cambridge University Opera Society gratefully acknowledge the support of Friends of Clare Music towards this production.

GOLD PATRONS Mr George Law Sir Roger Norrington

PATRONS Mr Peter Miller Mr Pegram Harrison

SUPPORTERS Mr Ian Akhurst Mrs Susan ArmstronMr Timothy BennDr Christopher EarnshawMrs Sarah Fisher

Ms Miranda Fyfe Ms Nicola Ihnatowicz Dr John Kitchen

Dr Andrew Leonard Mrs Anne Mogg Dr Jeremy Noyce Dr Roger Pritchard Mr Christopher Ratcliff Mr James Rivett Mr Malcolm Stork Mr Neil Thompson Mr Richard Tyte Dr Matthew Walpole Dr Simon Whiting Mr Peter Woods Mr Norman Dawson Ms Zoë Dyan Mr Christopher Eldridge Mr Paul & Mrs Li-Ching Francis

Mr Donald Evans Mr Alan Hall Mr Mark Hargreaves Miss Gita Hariri Dr Ian Hill OBE The Very Revd. Peter JuddMr Simon Judge Ms Nicky-Jane Kemp Mrs Rosemary Kirkman Ms Amy Klohr Dr Alexander Kremer Mr Johnny Langridge The Rt. Hon. Peter Lilley MPMrs Alison Lillystone Mr Michael H Miller Mr Barry Millington Mr Alan Morgan

Dr Sue O’Hare Mr Joseph Pillman Mr William Powell Mr Graham Prescott Mrs Penelope Robson Ms Nancy-Jane Rucker Mr Trevor Sandford Dr Peter Steel Mr Morgan Simes Dr Peter Steel Mr Patrick Stephenson Mr William Stevenson The Revd. Roger Stokes Mr Richard Swift Mr Peter Tett Dr Benjamin ThompsonMr Roger Wilkes

FRIENDS Mr Robert Balchin Dr Roger Banks Mrs Tessa Barber Dr Sara Barrett Mr Ronald Bawtree Mr John Biggs Dr Michael Bown Ms Charlotte Brewster Mr David Britton Mr Ross Charlton Dr Robin Chivers Mr John Clare Ms Carol Coe

HéloÏse Werner

Vixen (Soprano)

Héloïse Werner was a member of the French National Radio Chil-dren’s Choir for six years. In parallel, she studied the cello at the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel. She is now in her final year reading music at Clare College. Recent operatic roles in-clude: Love in Gluck’s Or-feo (CCMS, Clare College Chapel), Fairy leader in Fairy Queen Re-Imagined, based around Purcell’s Fairy Queen (CUOS, West Road Concert Hall). She is currently learning sing-ing with Giles Under-wood and Susan McCull-och. Earlier this year, she also co-produced and mu-sical directed The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd in King’s College Chapel, and directed Cain, a new chamber opera by Joshua Borin, in the St John’s Di-vinity School Theatre. In her spare time, Héloïse enjoys composing and playing with her folk band, ‘The Coach House Company’.

Harriet Flower

Fox (Soprano)

Harriet is involved in a broad range of musical activity in Cambridge and elsewhere. Previous stage roles include Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide, Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and The Beggar Woman in Sond-heim’s Sweeney Todd. She has also recently enjoyed soloing in such works as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Mass in B minor, and currently sings with Jesus College Choir, the University Chamber Choir, and the National Youth Choir. She is in her final year at Homerton College and studies sing-ing under Ghislaine Mor-gan..

Jonathan Hyde

Forester (Baritone)

20 year old baritone Jon-athan Hyde is a choral scholar at St John’s Col-lege, Cambridge, and is in his second year reading music. He is studying sing-ing with Robert Dean and spent his gap year singing as a Lay Clerk in Glouces-ter Cathedral Choir. His interests in the oper-atic stage have lead him to playing Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro as un-derstudy Figaro (Opera’r Ddraig), Gabriel Oak in a setting of Thomas Har-dy’s Far From the Madding Crowd (Blue Boar Op-era) and Shakespeare in a quirky production of Pur-cell’s The Fairy Queen. Re-cent vocal performances include Dvorak’s Mass in D, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and a recital of 20th Century English Song in The Cheltenham International Music Fes-tival. Jonny looks forward to getting involved in as much as he can during his years in Cambridge.

Jack Lawrence-Jones

Harasta (Bass)

Jack is in his fourth year at Downing College, Cambridge, reading Psy-chology and Computer Science. He sung with the Choir of Clare College, first under Tim Brown then Graham Ross. En-joying the versatility the Cambridge singing scene offers, Jack is also a mem-ber of Cambridge’s pre-mier a cappella group Over The Bridge, who’s latest incarnation will soon be appearing at May Balls near you. As a solo-ist Jack has performed re-citals around Cambridge. Recent operatic roles include Pirate King in a sell-out production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Minack Theatre in Corn-wall and Tempo/Mondo in Cavalieri’s Rappresenta-tione di Anima, et di Corpo staged in Trinity Chapel. Upcoming engagements include the role of Tar-qinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

Cast Biographies

Michael Mofidian

Parson/Badger(Bass)

Michael is a second-year Music undergraduate at Jesus College, where he can mainly be found in the Chapel Choir growl-ing out low notes like an unusually operatic bear. Recent roles include those of Aeneas and Figaro at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as creating the role of God in Joshua Borin’s chamber opera, Cain. Re-cital venues include Jesus, Clare, and most recently Christ Church Cathedral, Mordor (Oxford). Other recent solo work includes Haydn’s Seven Last Words under John Butt with the Choir of St Mary’s Ca-thedral, Edinburgh. Mi-chael studies singing with David Lowe, and has en-joyed masterclasses with Ann Murray, Roderick Williams, Toby Spence and Susan McCulloch. He also studied composi-tion with James Macmil-lan for several years, and now studies with Richard Causton.

James Robinson

Schoolmaster/Mosquito (Tenor)

James’ work as a solo-ist has included Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Stainer’s Crucifix-ion and Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signore. He has sung with South-wark Cathedral Choir, with the choral scholars of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, the Rodolfus choir, the Jubal Ensemble, the Victoria Consort, the Mercian Consort and currently sings with the choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cam-bridge. James has also deputised in numerous churches and with choral societies across London and the South-East of England. Since coming to Cambridge, James has ap-peared as Orpheus in Of-fenbach’s Orphée aux en-fers and Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. He will also take on the role of Male Chorus in Brittens Rape of Lucretia at the end of this term. In his spare time he is a keen, if largely incompetent tennis play-er, as well as following the misfortunes of Charlton Athletic FC.

Katya Borisova

Onstage chorus – Forester’s Wife

Katya studied music in the Gnessins College in Moscow where as part of the choir she performed major works including Verdi’s Requiem, Rach-maninov’s Great Vespers and Bernstein’s Chich-ester Psalms, along with solo and ensemble per-formances. Her operatic roles include Mallika in Lakme, Cherubino in Marriage of Figaro, Gian-netta in L’elisir d’amore, Povarikha in Tale of Tsar Saltan and Contessa in Rusalka. Katya also ap-pears in the recording of Iraida Yusupova’s media-opera Einstein and Margarita. Since arriv-ing in Cambridge she has sung with Girton College Choir, Cambridge Choral Society and Clare College Music Society perform-ing as a soloist in various works.

Helen Daniels

Onstage chorus – Lapak

Helen is a member of the Rodolfus Choir, Armon-ico Consort and Mousai Singers. Solo work has included Vivaldi’s Glo-ria, Bach’s St John Passion and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. Helen is currently in her second year of study-ing music at Gonville and Caius College, Cam-bridge, and she is a cho-ral volunteer for Trinity College Choir. As a mem-ber of Trinity Choir she has recorded Britten’s St Nicolas, Handel’s Chan-dos Anthems and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Hyperion Records. In the last year Helen played supporting female, Liddy, in the student-composed opera Far From the Mad-ding Crowd and Romeo in Fairy Queen: Re-imagined and has found playing the part of Lapak her most challenging and reward-ing role to date.

Katie BraithwaiteOnstage chorus – Woodpecker

Katie, 18, is cur-rently in her first year studying His-tory at Gonville and Caius College. She plays an active role in the musical life of the college as a Choral Scholar in the chapel choir and also plays the cello and the flute. This is Katie’s first ven-ture into opera and she is looking for-ward to taking part in many more such projects during her time at Cambridge, having thoroughly enjoyed being in-volved in Vixen.

Helen Charlston

Onstage chorus

Helen is in her second year study-ing Music with a Choral Scholar-ship at Trinity Col-lege. This is her first appearance in the CUOS main show, having previ-ously appeared in the chorus of Far From The Madding Crowd and Cav-lieri’s Rappresenta-tione di Anima e di Corpo. Recent solo performances have included Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s John Passion and Montiverdi’s 1610 Vespers. She will take the role of Bianca in Girton Chamber Music Scheme’s perfor-mance of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia in March this year.

Bonnie Cooper

Onstage Chorus – Cockerel

Canadian soprano Bonnie Cooper moved to Cam-bridge in 2011, where she per-forms in ensem-bles and recitals, and teaches private music tuition. This is Bonnie’s first ap-pearance with the Operatic Society and she is thrilled to be performing at West Road Concert Hall.

Jenny Ashworth

Onstage Chorus – Frantik

Jenny is studying for a PhD in medi-cal materials fol-lowing her Natural Sciences degree, during which time she sang in Clare Chapel Choir and conducted Clare’s n o n- a u d i t i o n e d choir, Clare Voices. Opera is a relatively new direction for her, but definitely a good one! So far she has had the chance to perform in Holst’s Savitri as Savitri, in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen as Night, and in last year’s CUOS production of Die Fledermaus as part of the chorus. She also contributed to last year’s Turtle Song project run by English Touring Opera.

JannekeDuprÉ

Onstage Chorus – Chocholka

Janneke Dupré is in her second year studying music at Homerton College and sings with the Choir of Clare Col-lege. This year she played Queen Eliz-abeth/Queen Mab in The Fairy Queen Re-imagined and Hat in Lost. Last year Janneke per-formed in Far from the Madding Crowd playing Soberness, Orpheus in the Un-derworld playing Calliope, and was part of the chorus in the CUOS main show Die Fleder-maus and Gluck’s Orfeo. In Septem-ber she played Mad Margaret in Rud-digore at the Minack theatre in Cornwall.

SophieHorrocks

Onstage chorus – Pepik

Sophie Horrocks is a second year music student from Edinburgh. She sings with the choir of Clare Col-lege, the close har-mony group Wax Lyrical, and enjoys performing in pro-ductions. She has appeared as Eurid-ice in Orpheus in the Underworld, Juliet in The Fairy Queen and chorus in Far From the Madding Crowd and Orpheus and Euridice and re-cently sung in Syd-ney Opera House with Clare Choir. Playing a hedgehog has been a lifelong ambition!

Harriet Sykes

Onstage chorus – Inkeeper’s Wife

Harriet is a second year Linguistics student from Cai-us, and has previ-ously been in Jerry Springer: The Opera and The Mikado, as well as produc-tions of Les Misera-bles and West Side Story. Harriet has thoroughly enjoyed Vixen, although at times has strug-gled to portray the emotional depth of character in her role as a Caterpillar.

Bethany Partridge

Onstage Chorus

Bethany is cur-rently in her sec-ond year studying Music at Trinity College where she is a choral scholar. During her time in Cambridge she has taken part in pro-ductions of Far from the Madding Crowd, The Sorcerer and Lost as well as sing-ing in a number of choirs and playing the cello in the Uni-versity Symphony Orchestra.

Hetty Gullifer

Onstage Chorus

Hetty Gullifer is a second year music student at Kings College and singing alto in Sidney Sus-sex College Choir. Before that she sung in Exeter Col-lege, Oxford two years and has also sung on tour with Queens College. Previous solos have included Mozart’s C minor mass, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and Feel the Spirit by John Rutter. She ap-peared last year in the opera Far from the Madding Crowd in Cambridge and hopes to get in-volved in more be-fore she leaves.

Jonathan Pacey

Onstage Chorus – Innkeeper

Jonathan Pacey (bass) started sing-ing aged seven in Winchester Ca-thedral Choir un-der David Hill and Andrew Lumsden. He won a mu-sic scholarship to C h a r t e r h o u s e , Surrey, where he became Head of Choir and is now a choral scholar at Trinity College, where he reads Mu-sic. In April 2011 he co-founded The Mousai Singers, a consort group of twelve former chor-isters. As a soloist, engagement have ranged from Bach’s St John Passion to Mozart’s Requiem and Cornelius’ The Three Kings recently on Radio 3. After university, Jonathan hopes to go on to study singing at a Music Conserver-toire and eventually to sing on the oper-atic stage.

Imi MyersDancer

Imi is a first year at-tempting to read English at Churchill College (the pretty one on the hill). She is a member of the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Ballet and trained at the Arts Educational School. Theatrical credits include Under Milk Wood at the ADC (as a murderous old man) and a lobster at the London Palladium. Imi has loved working on Vixen and has enjoyed the challenges of portraying a bat.

Janice ChuiDancer

Janice is from Hong Kong and is a Geographer from Murray Edwards. She has done ballet since she was five and is a member of the Cambridge Univer-sity Ballet Club. She has always loved how ballet is an elegant and expressive form of art. This is her first production in Cam-bridge, and she has great-ly enjoyed being part of such an amazing project. Apart from dancing, Jan-ice also likes painting and creative writing.

SarahMorrisDancer

A first year Physical Nat-ural Scientist at Murray Edwards, Sarah started ballet classes aged 7 and never really stopped. While her initial interest stemmed from the satin shoes and frilly skirts, she soon found that the danc-ing was fun too. While at school she performed in a few productions with her ballet school and con-temporary dance group. She has really enjoyed the dance rehearsals for The Cunning Little Vixen so far and the challenges of do-ing ballet ‘like a fox’.

HelenaClark-MaxwellChoreographer and

Dancer

Helena trained as a clas-sical ballet dancer at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. She then went on to work for English National Ballet as an apprentice dancer. She decided to apply to Cambridge after sustain-ing a serious dance injury and during her first year at St John’s College, she has danced in university productions Molly and Enigma. She was thrilled to have been asked to participate in Vixen, as she has always been pas-sionate about choreog-raphy and working with talented individuals.

The Company of The Cunning Little Vixen would like to thank...

Young Actors Company CambridgeCambridge Youth OperaRuth Hardie at CaMEOThe staff of West RoadThe CUOS committee

Friends of Clare MusicClare College Cambridge for the

use of their rehearsal spaceRob Mills

Anthony Friend

Ella HubbardNicola ChangKT Roberts

The River Bar

And anyone else who has helped us since this programme went to print.

Charlie RisiusDirector

Charlie is in his third year read-ing English at Magdalene. He has directed two other opera productions whilst at Cam-bridge – a double bill of Holst’s Savitri and The Wander-ing Scholar in Clare College Chapel, and LOST, a promenade performance of a new opera in the Fitzwilliam Mu-seum. Other direct-ing includes The Lonesome West, Aria da Capo, Disco Pigs, Post, Bash and Caba-ret. As an instru-mentalist his expe-riences have ranged widely, to say the least, from playing in the Cambridge University Sym-phony Orchestra to regularly perform-ing with the univer-sity’s only drag act, ‘Denim’.

William Cole

Musical Director

William Cole is in his third year of reading music at Clare College, where he is a Cho-ral Scholar. While at Cambridge he has conducted the Cambridge Uni-versity Symphony Orchestra for two seasons and is cur-rently serving as the CUMS Con-ducting Scholar. Having conducted a range of chamber opera productions at Cambridge, he is delighted to be Mu-sical Director of The Cunning Little Vixen. Active as a pianist and cellist, William is also a published composer, and has enjoyed perfor-mance at venues around the United Kingdom and in America. William also enjoys singing in close-harmony group Over The Bridge.

Lizzie SchenkAssistant Director

Lizzie is a second year studying Edu-cation with Eng-lish & Drama at Homerton. She has loved being assis-tant director for The Cunning Little Vixen and has learned so much – thank you so much to every-one involved! Previ-ously she directed a devised piece called Interruption at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012, co-directed a version of The Can-terbury Tales, and is working on co-directing two more pieces of devised theatre: Snap Out Of It! and Strung Up. She also loves to act and has been in several produc-tions in Cambridge and prior and, when not onstage, sneaks up to the counter-weight gallery to help out as a techie!

Nadanai Laohakunakorn

Assistant Musical Director

Nadanai has worked as repetiteur and assistant conduc-tor at Opera Siam, Thailand’s first pro-fessional opera com-pany, where he took part in productions of Tosca, Carmen, and Madame But-terfly, as well as con-ducting the Thai-land premiere of Holst’s Savitri. As a pianist his repertoire includes concertos by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, and he has appeared as soloist with the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra and Siam Sinfonietta; how-ever he prefers ac-companying and chamber music. In what time he has left, Nadanai is cur-rently studying for a PhD in biophysics at Trinity, where he previously complet-ed an undergradu-ate degree in natural sciences.

LeoCairnsProducer

Leo Cairns loves producing. After 12 shows previ-ously, this has been his largest pro-duction ever. Leo is currently the Junior Treasurer of the Cambridge Footlights and also Musical Director of Churchill Jazz Band, in which he plays trumpet. In his spare time, Leo studies philosophy at Clare College, Cambridge.

Crew Biographies

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITYOPERA SOCIETY

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PROGRAMME DESIGNED BY CRAIG SLADECRAIG.SLADE@LIVE.CO.UK