An Opera by Tobias Picker

Press and Program Notes

"It's a very tonal work, full of good tunes." -- Donald Sturrock

Composer Tobias Picker with Children's Chorus of Trees

"There are a lot of grown-up elements in this opera, even though it's for children and adults," continues Picker. "[Dahl] had a wicked imagination." Although many of Dahl's children's books have been made into movies and stage musicals, Fantastic Mr. Fox is the first to become an opera.

Picker's involvement in the project came after Peter Hemmings, General Director of Los Angeles Music Center Opera, and Donald Sturrock, Artistic Director of the Roald Dahl Foundation, attended opening night of the composer's Emmeline at Santa Fe Opera in 1996. The composer happily accepted the invitation, and the work had its world premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in December of 1998, with Peter Ash conducting and Canadian baritone Gerald Finley as Mr. Fox.

The Wall Street Journal
Heidi Waleson

"Creating operas for children must present composers and librettists with a terrible temptation toward saccharine prettiness and preachy messages about self-esteem, but Tobias Picker and Donald Sturrock, the authors of Fantastic Mr. Fox, did not succumb. Instead, they stayed true to their subject matter -- a novel by Roald Dahl. Children love Dahl...for his macabre sense of humor...

"Mr. Picker demonstrated a profound grasp of dramatic musical storytelling in Emmeline, his first opera...[With Fantastic Mr. Fox, he and Mr. Sturrock] captured Dahl's spirit in a musical language that challenged, entertained and never pandered, skillfully balancing dark and light...

"Two entirely new creatures gave Mr. Picker the chance for some particularly inspired writing: Miss Hedgehog...and Agnes the Digger...

"...with Mr. Picker's lyric gift and dramatic sense, the opera was a captivating and witty entertainment. Oboe themes representing the natural world contrasted with the percussive characterization of the people and the machines. Mr. Picker also made colorful orchestral use of mallet instruments and a piano. The fox family and the quintet of bad guys had catchy ensembles, there were two haunting chorales for a children's chorus of trees, and the fox pair celebrated their victory at the end with, of course, a fox trot...

"...my five-year-old nephew announced that he wants to be Bean next Halloween...[Miss Hedgehog's aria] was my nine-year-old daughter's favorite part. My six-year-old daughter particularly adored the malevolent Agnes, and is still singing the foxcubs' chant, 'Boggis, Bunce and Bean. One fat, one short, one lean.' They'd all see it again, and so would I."

Financial Times (London)
Timothy Pfaff

"[Picker's score is] is a strong, flexible piece of sustained writing that skillfully juxtaposes the animal kingdom's buoyant innocence with the more mordant colours of the human realm -- music that consistently boasts grateful, characterful vocal writing."

Suddeutsche Zeitung (Munich)
Helmut Mauro

"The great skill of Picker's compositional art can be seen very clearly in this opera. On the one hand the counterpoint of his ideas presents an intellectual challenge...but it is often subliminally combined with bold and catchy orchestral effects... Fantastic Mr. Fox was more than just a succes d'estime. Already it seems other opera houses seem eager to present it."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt am Main)
Jordan Mejias

"Picker surprises us with a funny, imaginative, varied and often intricately-woven score... In a masterful theatrical touch, the first act ends as a shot rings out, the second with Agnes the Digger and Mavis the Tractor caught dramatically at the moment they are about to wreak their destruction [on the Fox's den]. It's both exciting and technically flawless on the part of the librettist Donald Sturrock... While Mr. Fox walks upon the opera stage, who would want to return to the familiar world of Hansel and Gretel? I would recommend Fantastic Mr. Fox to children of any age."

Albuquerque Journal
Joanne Sheery Hoover

Tobias Picker's Second Opera is a Child's Delight

"With five opera commissions in a decade, Picker holds a select, if not unique, position among contemporary opera composers. The odds are high he will become a significant figure in the operatic world.

"Picker responded to the story's bite with some sharp characterizations. He deftly portrayed the three farmers, 'Boggis, Bunce and Bean; one fat, one short, one lean...all equally mean!'...Boggis...got deep, blunt lines...Bunce...had fussy little phrases...and the lean, scheming Bean...sang in slithering phrases.

"Picker also explored the tale's tender aspects with lyrical writing for Mrs. Fox, sensitively portrayed by mezzo soprano Suzanna Guzman. Life's darker side, in the bittersweet song about loss and aging of Miss Hedgehog, nicely shaped by soprano Sari Gruber, offered one of the opera's most touching moments. And Mr. Fox, given lithe physicality by baritone Gerald Finley, had heroic yet slightly bent melodies, reflecting both his goodness and his vanity."

Palisadian-Post
(Pacific Palisades, CA)
Libby Motika

Fantastic Mr. Fox Scores Big

"Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl's amusing animal fable, transformed into the colorful and harmonic opera of the same name, opened in a world premiere last week at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Boldly interpreted by composer Tobias Picker...the opera tells the story of three disagreeable farmers and their plot to eliminate cunning Mr. Fox...

"In composing the music for these strange characters, Picker responded with wit, humor, beauty and vitality.

"For opera enthusiasts who wait for the love duet, Picker offers a beautiful exchange between Mr. and Mrs. Fox...and Miss Hedgehog's melancholic aria is lovely.

"Children will love this opera because it's a good story, colorful and deliciously defiant. The human beings are outwitted time and time [again] by the animals. Adults will love this, too, because we still carry that child inside us."

San Marino Tribune
Carolyn Wightman

Foxy New Opera Takes Stage at Music Center

"There is much to rejoice about when a new American opera takes the stage, and L.A. Opera's world premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox gives us plenty to be happy about...

"Children -- and there were scores if not hundreds present on opening night -- sat absolutely entranced; they loved it...

"Fantastic Mr. Fox is well worth a visit to the Dorothy Chandler [Pavilion]..."

Press-Telegram
(Long Beach, CA)
John Farrell

'FANTASTIC' IT IS -- 'Mr. Fox' and Company Charm and Delight Music Lovers of All Ages

"Fantastic Mr. Fox...is many things...It is eminently an opera for children. Filled with funny, morally upright animals and mean, despicable humans, a backhoe that looks like a dinosaur and a message about family values, it is guaranteed to charm young music lovers and get novices through the concert-hall doors.

"It is also an opera for adults. Tobias Picker...has written a score that is sometimes tuneful, sometimes powerfully haunting, sometimes broadly comic, and full of a rich, delicious energy.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox is delightful, light, verbally and musically witty, but thoughtful...this is a work that could be heard with pleasure, without the fancy design."

Le Monde de la Musique (Paris)
Georges Gad

"Can a cartoonist create a real world on stage? Is it possible to sing under a mask? Is opera for children really possible? Fantastic Mr. Fox responds affirmatively to these three questions... The director, Donald Sturrock has brought together two surprising names. He has written a libretto based on a story of Roald Dahl — the best-selling children's author in the Anglo-Saxon world. He has also chosen the famous cartoonist Gerald Scarfe to design the production. It's a stroke of genius. Sets, costumes and masks are magnificent... And it's not just the visuals that are stunning. Tobias Picker's score flows easily. Songs are linked by brief ariosos. The piano contributes a great deal and the score abounds with ironic ragtime rhythms... Each of the characters is represented by one of the instruments in the orchestra. The wit of the little love-duet between Miss Hedgehog and Porcupine is truly a delight to savour.... The piece blends caricature and emotional reality quite wonderfully. The singers are quite natural in their masks, and Gerald Finley as Mr. Fox, the philosopher ecologist, stands out from the ensemble as a truly remarkable presence."