OPERA

In many Met productions, the world’s finest singers share the spotlight with an assortment of four-legged co-stars. In the opening months of the 2017–2018 season alone, three sheep, a horse, and a chivalric donkey grace the Met stage. All five animal actors—and almost all of the Met’s theatrical critters—are provided by All-Tame Animals, a New York–based animal talent agency owned by Nancy Novograd, whose staff put their performers through vigorous training. The All-Tame team prepares the animals by acclimating them to crowds and loud noises, playing music in their stalls, and painting their stall entrances to look like the Met’s brightly striped stage doors. After a few performances, Novograd says, “They even know their music! They doze in the dark behind the scenes, and then when they hear their music, they pick their heads up and get ready.”

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