Snakes need stage presence too. At auditions held at the Metropolitan Opera on August 28, a boa constrictor named Princess bested two smaller competitors to win a spot in the company's upcoming revival of Mozart's Così fan tutte, a production reimagined as a 1950s Coney Island carnival where circus performers share the stage with Mozart's 18th-century lovers.
The audition process, as reported by the Associated Press, came down to a judgment call from Zoe Ziegfeld, a carnival performer-turned-opera actor cast as the show's snake handler. Ziegfeld evaluated each candidate by demeanor and comfort with people and the audition activities, according to the AP's reporting from journalists David R. Martin and Jeffrey Collins, with Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina. The first two snakes brought in for consideration were relatively small, and it was Princess's larger size and better visual presence on stage that ultimately won her the part, per the same account.
Princess will now participate in rehearsals on a trial basis, the AP reports, with a slightly smaller brown boa constrictor named Nala serving as her understudy. The snakes came courtesy of Nancy Novograd, who provided the audition animals through her agency, All Tame Animals, which supplies creatures ranging from elephants to insects for stage work. Novograd told the AP that animals cast in Met productions must perform specific behaviors or simply get along with the human talent around them, and animal selection ultimately depends on personality, color, size, and compatibility with the performer who will be handling them onstage — in this case, Ziegfeld.
A Handler Who Has Done This Before
Ziegfeld is no stranger to snake charming. Before joining the Met, the performer built a career in New York City's drag, burlesque, and sideshow scenes, working with the Brooklyn-based collective Switch n' Play and co-producing Jewish variety shows at Lincoln Center and the Abrons Arts Center, according to background provided by that venue. Ziegfeld has performed the snake charmer role in this Met production three times previously, and according to the AP's report, once auditioned for the gig years ago using video of their own snake-charming act. Ziegfeld's sideshow résumé also includes performing eight snake-charming shows a day on Coney Island and the human blockhead act, which involves knocking a nail into the nasal cavity, the AP notes.
That Coney Island connection is fitting, since the Met's version of Così fan tutte transplants Mozart's 18th-century Naples-set comedy to a 1950s boardwalk carnival while keeping mostly the same plot as the composer's original opera, per the AP. The staging, directed by Phelim McDermott, first premiered at London's English National Opera in May 2014 before making its Met debut in 2018, according to The Guardian. The production folds in a 12-member Skills Ensemble of professional circus artists, including fire-eaters, sword-swallowers, and contortionists, reimagining the opera's original Naples setting as a boardwalk sideshow, the paper reports.
From Da Ponte's Vienna to a Boardwalk Stage
Mozart composed Così fan tutte, subtitled The School for Lovers, with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, and it premiered on January 26, 1790, at Vienna's Burgtheater, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. That original run lasted just five performances, cut short by the death of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. Da Ponte later emigrated to New York City, where he died in 1838, long before his opera would find a second life on a fictional Coney Island boardwalk just miles from where he's buried.
This fall's revival at the Met is scheduled for nine performances running from September 23 to October 23, including a global Live in HD cinema transmission on October 3, according to the Metropolitan Opera. The company's Live in HD series has become a fixture of its public programming, and just weeks before this opening, the Met hosted its 17th annual Summer HD Festival at Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza, offering 2,500 free open-air seats a night for archival broadcasts, as Hoodline previously reported.
Snakes Join a Long Line of Met Animal Performers
Princess is hardly the first live animal to share Met Opera's stage. Novograd's agency also supplied Wanda the donkey, who debuted in La Bohème and The Barber of Seville in 2022 to replace Sir Gabriel, a donkey who retired to a Maryland farm after 16 years performing, according to background from the Metropolitan Opera. Novograd got into the animal talent business after her own horse appeared onstage in a Met production of Carmen, the same background notes. Live animals have shown up elsewhere in the Met's repertoire too, including five live dogs that appeared in Robert Carsen's staging of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier during its 2022-23 season revival.
These stage appearances happen within a specific legal framework. New York City banned the use of wild and exotic animals in commercial circuses in July 2017, though the law carves out exemptions for licensed theatrical productions, educational displays, and official institutional exhibitions operating under state and federal permits, according to the New York City Bar Association. According to a June 6, 2017 New York City Council document, the city considered a local law amending the Administrative Code in relation to wild or exotic animal circus performances. New York City Council Legistar records say legislation numbered 1233-A, prohibiting the use of wild or exotic animals in circus performances, was passed at the June 21, 2017 Stated Meeting. The New York State Legislature has since gone further, passing legislation prohibiting traveling wild animal acts statewide, building on restrictions already in place in New York City, Westchester, and Suffolk counties, per Humane World for Animals. Stationary cultural institutions like the Met, working through licensed handling agencies, have continued to operate under distinct standards from the traveling circuses and carnivals the newer laws specifically target.
