Murrell pens English libretto for Janacek family opera
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 4:35 PM ET
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Calgary playwright and director John Murrell has written an English-language libretto for Leos Janacek's opera The Story of Sharp Ears the Fox (or The Cunning Little Vixen).
The family opera will premiere in English for the first time at the Banff Centre for the Arts in August.
Czech composer Janacek created the opera — about a little fox that escapes capture, finds love and must elude the dangers of people — in the early 1920s.
The work has a new orchestration by Briton Jonathan Dove and will be performed by singers from the Banff Opera as Theatre program.
Murrell gave the story a slight twist by setting it in the Canadian Rockies.
"People will be able to leave these woods and enter the theatre, and see a world they recognize and can relate to. It makes it all the more relevant to our culture, and you can instantly connect to the story," he said.
Murrell, who wrote the librettos for the new operas Filumena and Frobisher, is also working on a two-act opera with composer Bramwell Tovey called The Inventor. It has been commissioned by Calgary Opera for production in 2011.
Murrell is a former head of the Banff playwrights' colony and won the Governor General's Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in 2008 for his work in the performing arts.
The Story of Sharp Ears the Fox is to be performed at the Banff Centre Aug. 6-9.
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