|mezzo-soprano |Marta Dobruská |- |Chocholka, a hen |soprano |Vlasta Kubiková |- |Rooster |soprano | |- !colspan=3|Bit roles: |- |Pepík, Forester's grandson |soprano |Bozena Polaková |- |Frantík, Pepík's friend |soprano |Milada Rabasová |- |Pásek, an innkeeper|tenor |Bedřich Zavadil |- |Mrs. Páskova, Pásek's wife|soprano |Jelena Jezicová |- |Young Vixen Bystrouška |child soprano | |- |Cricket |child soprano | |- |Young Frog |child soprano | |- |Grasshopper |child soprano | |- |Jay |soprano | |- |Owl |contralto | |- |Woodpecker |contralto | |- |Mosquito |tenor | |- |Badger |bass | |- !colspan=3|Chorus roles: |- |Hens |women's chorus (SA) | |- |Forest Creatures |women's chorus (SA) | |- |Voice of the Forest |mixed chorus (SAATTBB) | |- |Fox Cubs |[children's] chorus | |- !colspan=3|Ballet roles: |- | colspan="4"|Blue Dragonfly, Midges, Apparition of the Vixen as a girl, Hedgehog, Squirrels, a Young Vixen, Forest Creatures |} According to instructions in the score, four pairs of roles may be performed by the same singer: Parson/Badger, Schoolmaster/Mosquito, Forester's Wife/Owl, and Rooster/Jay. Janácek later required that Lapák, Rooster, and Chocholka be sung by "girls approximately fifteen years old." Synopsis Act 1 In the forest, the animals and insects are playing and dancing. The forester enters and lies down against a tree for a nap. A curious vixen cub (often sung by a young girl), inquisitively chases a frog right into the lap of the surprised forester who forcibly takes the vixen home as a pet. Time passes (in the form of an orchestral interlude) and we see the vixen, now grown up into a young adult (and sung by a soprano) tied up in the forester's yard with the conservative old dachshund. Fed up with life in confinement, the vixen chews through her rope, attacks the rooster and hen, kills the other chickens, jumps over the fence and runs off to freedom. Act 2 The vixen takes over a badger's home and kicks him out. At the inn, the parson, the forester, and the schoolmaster drink and talk about their mutual infatuation with the gypsy girl Terynka. The drunken schoolmaster leaves the inn and mistakes a sunflower behind which the vixen is hiding for Terynka, professing his devotion to her. The forester, also on his way home, sees the vixen and fires two shots at her, sending her running. Later, the vixen, coming into her adulthood, meets a charming boy fox, and they retire to the badger's home.