The second opera in the season is the English-language The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek.

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Early in the last century, Leos Janacek created brilliant operas out of what, on the surface, appeared to be equally loopy ideas.

NPR: Janacek's 'The Cunning Little Vixen'

He turned a serial comic strip from a local newspaper into The Cunning Little Vixen, one of Janacek's most touching and inventive operas.

NPR: Janacek's 'The Cunning Little Vixen'

The over-fussy Janacek production by Christoph Marthaler, for instance, was booed as well as cheered with a gusto (too) rarely encountered in the Karajan era.

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But when it comes to unorthodox subject matter, Janacek may have outdone even himself with The Cunning Little Vixen, basing it on what was essentially a comic strip.

NPR: Quirk of Nature: Janacek's 'Cunning Little Vixen'

On World of Opera, Lisa Simeone presents Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen in a production from the Maggio Musicale in Florence, led by conductor Seiji Ozawa.

NPR: Quirk of Nature: Janacek's 'Cunning Little Vixen'

In 1920, Leos Janacek turned to science fiction for his opera The Excursions of Mr. Broucek, setting one of its scenes on the moon, where the local residents turn out to be fussy, art aficionados.

NPR: Quirk of Nature: Janacek's 'Cunning Little Vixen'