Operatic Animals

Part 0: Introduction

As some of my readers already know, I love opera. I have since I was three years old and would watch Ingmar Bergman’s 1975 movie adaptation of The Magic Flute, in German with Swedish subtitles (neither of which I spoke or understood).

In my twenty-something years of being an opera nerd, I have listened to surprisingly few of them, mostly because when I like something I’ll listen to it on loop for several months at a time. All of which means I know a few of them very, very well, and a lot of others not at all.

So, in part to repair my ignorance, and in part because I like talking about the subject, I’m starting a mini-series on operas that have to do with animals. I have no idea how long the series will be, but hopefully it’ll be of interest to someone other than me.

Here’s the proposed format: I’ll start each post with a short synopsis of the opera. Then I’ll talk about the role of a given animal in it, and then talk about some cool science fact about that animal.

A quick note on the synopsis: It is a generally accepted fact that you can’t really spoil an opera, in the same way that you can’t really spoil the ending of Romeo and Juliet (which, incidentally, is also an opera). As a result, almost every playbill I’ve ever seen has given away the ending. I will also be doing this, but I understand that for someone who doesn’t know the ending and wants it to be a surprise in case they ever go see it, this could be frustrating. So, I will write SPOILER ALERT in big bold letters before the part where I spoil the ending, and if you don’t want to read it you can skip ahead to the science part. In fact, you can skip ahead to the science part anyway, especially if you don’t care about opera (I forgive you).

I am currently drowning in other work, and so I’ll start the series properly next week when I’ve had time to do the necessary research. In the meantime, I’ll add some links to some of my favorite arias that have to do with animals, even if only very vaguely.

Oh! And last thing: if anyone has any suggestions about other operas I can include in this series, please write to me! I have 3 or 4 at the moment, but I’m always in desperate need of new ideas, so please give me some of yours (this goes for the rest of Science Stories, too).

That is all for the moment. Thank you so much for your patience in awaiting this new hit series, and happy almost weekend to all.

Sincerely,

Viola H. Ruzzier

And now, for some of my favorites…

Here, Rosina compares herself to a viper. Very loosely connected to the theme, but I love this aria so I’m including it.

A fairly misogynistic aria that replaced another one about class struggle that the censors didn’t like. But the tune is catchy and there’s a whole list of animals in it.

A roundup of Jupiter’s (the god) metamorphoses into various animals for the purposes of seduction, meant to make fun of him because he’s claiming to be morally perfect.