Here I am with Rebecca Bottone in the Ryedale Festival’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen, directed by Joe Austin and designed by Simon Kenny. Nick Winston did brilliant work with the cast to develop a range of movements to suit our non-human characters – foxes, chickens, mosquito, owl, frog, hare, cricket, dog, woodpecker – and the warm colours of the animal costumes contrasted tellingly with the austere grey palette of the human world. Iain Farrington’s reduction of the full orchestral score somehow still managed to suggest many of the colours in Janacek’s original soundworld, so who knows? perhaps the success of this small-scale production (cast of nine, and orchestra of nine) proves that The Cunning Little Vixen can have a new lease of life with smaller opera companies as a touring piece. Click here to see video footage.