Pretty much everyone on stage Metropolitan Opera in New York has to audition – even the snake, which will briefly be the focus of an upcoming adaptation of a Mozart classic.
Responsibility for deciding who gets the reptilian role in the SSSS lead falls to Zoe Ziegfeld, a carnival performer-turned-opera actress who plays the snake-fighter in the 1950s Coney Island-inspired Met version of “Così fan tutte.”
Ziegfeld takes each snake, lets it slither and wrap around them, then lifts the animal above their head and rehearses what they will do under the bright lights at the center of each performance. Ziegfeld looks everyone in the eye, almost face to face, as they assess the snake’s behavior.
“I need to know that the animal is comfortable with the people and what we are doing,” Ziegfeld said.
The princess slips into her big role
In the cold-blooded competition, a boa constrictor named Princess won. She is a bigger snake with a better visual presence on stage.
“We will continue rehearsals with Princess (the large, sunlit boa constrictor who is peach yellow) in rehearsals! She is a wonderful snake and the rehearsal is not about her, but about me and my strength,” Ziegfeld wrote in an email after the auditions were over.
A slightly smaller brown boa constrictor named Nala from a second audition will be the princess’s understudy.
A Mozart opera set at a Coney Island carnival in the 1950s
This is the third time Ziegfeld has played the role of the snake charmer in the Met’s adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1790 opera.
In Mozart’s original, two Italian soldiers decide to test their lovers’ loyalty by pretending to go to war. Then they dress up and try to seduce each other’s girlfriends. In this version, the plot remains largely the same, but the setting is a 1950s Coney Island carnival with a colorful backdrop and supporting cast.
The carnival snake charmer became an opera artist
Ziegfeld accepted the role honestly. They spent a few seasons at Coney Island performing eight snake-charming shows a day.
When they tried it a few years ago, live snakes were not allowed in the auditorium. Instead, Ziegfeld brought a video of their snake-charming act and then underlined their carnival side show with a clear conscience by driving a nail into their own nasal cavity in the so-called “Human Blockhead” act.
“The music is different. The money is different. It’s fun to entertain them. And with snakes, it’s a joy to know that there are people who are in awe and people who are afraid. And these things happen at the Met and at Coney – so I would say they’re more similar than different, to be honest,” Ziegfeld said.
Animals are important characters in some Met operas
The snakes came to their audition thanks to Nancy Novograd and her company All Tame Animals.
She got into the business when her horse was on stage in a production of “Carmen” at the Met, and now she supplies the opera house with everything from elephants to insects.
The first two audition lines were a bit small. You could have collided with Ziegfeld’s tip. But the key is personality, Novograd said.
“Animals need to perform just like human talent does. Sometimes they have certain behaviors that they need to exhibit. And sometimes they just need to get along with the talent,” Novograd said. “So in this case they have to be the right color and size and Zoe has to like them.”