# Animals in opera productions?



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Last night I saw La Cenerentola at San Francisco Opera in the old Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production. During the storm the chorus/supers brought a Pomeranian across the stage.

What other animals have you seen in opera productions?

The first that came to mind for me was the pair of Irish Wolfhounds in Mary Zimmerman's production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met





but I know there's more!


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

In the former Met LE NOZZE DI FIGARO the Count had some kind of a big hunting dog (I have no idea what breed -- I'm a cat-lover anyway).


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Are you sure it is not Scottish Deerhounds?


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

Cavalleria rusticana starts with a horse on the stage (in Budapest).


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I believe Thomas Beecham was conducting an opera whose props included a donkey. Apparently the donkey dropped a pile on the stage at which Beecham quipped, "not just a musician - a critic!"


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

DavidA said:


> I believe Thomas Beecham was conducting an opera whose props included a donkey. Apparently the donkey dropped a pile on the stage at which Beecham quipped, "not just a musician - a critic!"


Someone has to assess the asses, 'critics,' I mean. _;D_


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I was on a swimming club exchange trip to St Petersburg (1990 I guess) and learning that I was an opera fan they took us to the Mariinsky Theatre for Rimsky Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Gergiev and Galina Gorchakova.

It was the original 19th century production and the brilliant storm and chase scene featured two horses at full gallop from one wing to the other. Completely unexpected and magnificent!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Karajan used dogs, in the entrance of Elizabeth, in the garden scene in Don Carlos by Verdi on the Salzburger festspiele


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Alexander said:


> I was on a swimming club exchange trip to St Petersburg (1990 I guess) and learning that I was an opera fan they took us to the Mariinsky Theatre for Rimsky Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Gergiev and Galina Gorchakova.
> 
> It was the original 19th century production and the brilliant storm and chase scene featured two horses at full gallop from one wing to the other. Completely unexpected and magnificent!


Wow! That must have been spectacular!


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Horse and donkey in _Don Quichotte_. Would love to see this production one day.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pugg said:


> Karajan used dogs, in the entrance of Elizabeth, in the garden scene in Don Carlos by Verdi on the Salzburger festspiele


I know he used birds of prey in one production. One critic remarked how like Karajan they looked!


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Sloe said:


> Are you sure it is not Scottish Deerhounds?


I am pretty sure they are Irish Wolfhounds. Renée Fleming even interviewed their handler during the Live In HD transmission and I believe it was discussed but I can't find video or a transcript.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> I am pretty sure they are Irish Wolfhounds. Renée Fleming even interviewed their handler during the Live In HD transmission and I believe it was discussed but I can't find video or a transcript.


Ok you are probably right and they look more like Irish wolfhounds but it is difficult to see and Scottish deerhounds would be more suitable for Lucia de Lamermoor.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Horses seem to be among the more popular four-legged opera "stars." The DVD of the ROH production of _Carmen_ conducted by Sir Tony Pappano has Escamillo (Ildebrando D'Archangelo) make his first appearance mounted on a beautiful dark bay/brown, and there was a horse parading in the background during a Salzburg Festival performance of Zimmermann's _Soldaten_ a few years ago. In a performance of _La Fanciulla del West_ at the Cincinnati Opera back in the '80s that I attended, Minnie and Dick/Ramerrez rode off into their new life together on a pair of Quarter Horses. One of the elephants from the Cincinnati Zoo was always part of the Triumphal March whenever the Opera staged _Aida_. In recent months, a production of _Aureliano in Palmyra_ at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro featured four live goats, one of whom chose his moment in the spotlight to relieve himself on some of the scenery, and a performance of Louis Andriessen's _De Materie_ at the Ruhr Triennial had an entire flock of sheep present during the opera's fourth segment. However, they behaved with more discretion than the goat in Pesaro, or that donkey at the performance Beecham conducted.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

This fall, I've been lucky to see the Met's classic productions of both La Boheme and Aida. If I recall correctly, in La Boheme, Musetta makes her entrance in a carriage drawn by a white horse and Parpignol's toy cart is drawn by a donkey. And in Aida, the triumphal march featured a beautiful bay horse, then Radames made his entrance in a chariot drawn by two white horses.

One of the most effective and extended animal features I've seen was in King for Day (an English version of Verdi's _Un giorno di regno _) at Glimmerglass Opera last year, where Ginger Costa-Jackson sang an entire aria to a very patient poodle.

Years ago, I attended a recital by Denyce Graves where she made her entrance carrying her own pet dog.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Seems these days a production of Aida can't be done without at least one horse and chariot and an elephant.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Nobody's mentioned the goat in Dinorah yet, but that could be because it's rarely performed now- possibly due to the modern intolerance of bleating vibrato.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Never seen Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron before but really hoping that there are sheep that appear in the opera. If not, there's always Wallace and Gromit.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

It's about time we saw Grane (Brunnhilde's noble steed) in the flesh, or perhaps the rams that are supposed to be pulling Fricka's chariot. While we're at it...a real bear in Siegfried, or a woodbird.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

albertfallickwang said:


> Never seen Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron before but really hoping that there are sheep that appear in the opera. If not, there's always Wallace and Gromit.


There are animals sacrificed in the libretto and a staff becomes a serpent, but these things have remained more or less unrealizable on-stage. I haven't seen the film version made in the 80s(?), though. Of course, many productions today don't follow the libretto closely at all. This year's Welsh National Opera version didn't even have any naked virgins! :lol:


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> There are animals sacrificed in the libretto and a staff becomes a serpent, but these things have remained more or less unrealizable on-stage. I haven't seen the film version made in the 80s(?), though. Of course, many productions today don't follow the libretto closely at all. This year's Welsh National Opera version didn't even have any naked virgins! :lol:


Naked virgins?!? Man I seriously am missing some Schoenberg LOL!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Alexander said:


> It's about time we saw Grane (Brunnhilde's noble steed) in the flesh, or perhaps the rams that are supposed to be pulling Fricka's chariot. While we're at it...a real bear in Siegfried, or a woodbird.


My hairdresser has trained her parrot to sing Happy Birthday, but I'm not sure he would be up to the wood bird's song. (Isn't it a girl wood bird anyway?)


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Not a wood bird, but a Queen of the Night . . .


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

Alexander said:


> I was on a swimming club exchange trip to St Petersburg (1990 I guess) and learning that I was an opera fan they took us to the Mariinsky Theatre for Rimsky Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Gergiev and Galina Gorchakova.
> 
> It was the original 19th century production and the brilliant storm and chase scene featured two horses at full gallop from one wing to the other. Completely unexpected and magnificent!


I don't know about 1990, but right now there seems to be one white horse in the Mariinsky for any, and I mean ANY occasion. For Libenskoff in Il viaggio a Reims. For Konchak in Prince Igor. Don Quixote in the ballet (and I suspect in Massenet's opera too, but I haven't seen that one yet) rides it just as well.


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

Alexander said:


> It's about time we saw Grane (Brunnhilde's noble steed) in the flesh, or perhaps the rams that are supposed to be pulling Fricka's chariot. While we're at it...a real bear in Siegfried, or a woodbird.


Well, we do see a real woodbird in the Copenhagen Ring.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Robert Carsen's _Falstaff_ uses a live horse.

When I saw it in 2012 the horse was very well behaved but as the trailer shows, when an animal's got to go ... :devil:


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

My stepdad told me about a performance of the Soldier's Chorus in Gounod's Faust where a live horse was a diva and drowned out the chorus. The tenor was Giaiolli and happened during the 1970's supposedly at the Philadelphia Grand Opera.

Which caused me to think that horses should try to attack Wagner arias in full force.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

albertfallickwang said:


> Which caused me to think that horses should try to attack Wagner arias in full force.


I'd love to hear some horsey noises during the Ride of the Valkyries! That would be fun.


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