Reviews today include The Cunning Little Vixen at the RDS and The Charlatans at the Ambassador, Dublin,

The Cunning Little Vixen - Royal Dublin Society:

Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen has been described as the composer's sunniest opera. However, this tale of animals and humans in overlapping worlds is also one of the composer's most emblematic creations - a tragi-comic, multi-layered fable with dark undercurrents beneath a surface of life, death and renewal.

The musical strengths of Opera Theatre Company's English-language touring production, which moved to the RDS on Friday night, are considerable. It uses Jonathan Dove's remarkably effective arrangement for 16 players. Richard Farnes's conducting is clear and impeccably timed and the playing of the instrumental ensemble, led by Michael d'Arcy, is muscular and secure. The singers are generally consistent, and although words were not always clear on Friday night, the contributions of Charles Johnston, Clarissa Meek, and Louise Walsh as the Vixen, were as reliable as their prominent roles demanded.

Designer Joanna Parker uses a single backdrop for the forest and indoor scenes, which are defined by Simon Corder's unobtrusive lighting. There are no dancers. Instead, the singers are given telling movements devised by Bernadette Iglich.

In this Vixen, the main point for talk and thought is James Conway's direction. The singers are reduced from 18 to 10, by intensifying the role-doubling envisaged by the composer. The set design and costumes facilitate seamless transitions between the animal and human worlds, and one special emphasis is the impact of custom on natural love. This, in turn, is part of a larger idea - in Conway's words, the animal nature of humans. By emphasising so many layers, Conway makes it even more challenging. But it works, and does so in the best sense, because its metaphorical richness is never heavy-handed. Even bawdy humour is deft.

Martin Adams

• OTC's The Cunning Little Vixen travels to Kilkenny (Watergate) on Tuesday February 19th, Sligo (Hawk's Well) on Thursday 21st, Enniskillen (Ardhowen) on Saturday 23rd, Armagh (Marketplace) on Tuesday 26th, Derry (Millennium Complex) on Thursday 28th and Mullingar (Arts Centre) on Saturday March 2nd.

The Charlatans - Ambassador, Dublin:

It's  taken The Charlatans 13 years to find Wonderland, 13 years of mixed fortunes to finally reach their own musical nirvana. The Brit band have always hinted at greatness: while Oasis were lazily scooping up accolades for simply keeping the status quo, Tim Burgess and his band were delivering real rock 'n' roll passion on songs like One To Another, How High and Tellin' Stories.

How high they've come is apparent when they take the stage at the Ambassador and rip into Love Is The Key from their brilliant new album, Wonderland. The punchy guitars, the swaggering bass and the strutting falsetto of Tim Burgess are a million miles away from The Only One I Know, the band's big, baggy hit from way back when.

LA has changed singer Tim Burgess from a diffident, nasal-voiced shambler into a formidable frontman with an impressive falsetto borrowed from Mick Jagger circa Some Girls. It helps that guitarist Mark Collins, organist Tony Rogers, bassist Martin Blunt and drummer Jon Brookes are also on top of their form, as proven by a wildly exuberant finale of Sproston Green. Charlatans? These guys are 4 real.

Kevin Courtney