Book:Maskerade/Annotations

When Death is trying to persuade the reluctant swan to sing just once - everyone knows the well-known fact that a swan will sing only once in its life, just before it dies (hence swan-song, a last defiant flourish of life just before The End. not just a shout-out to the ballet Swan Lake, but take a closer look at what the swan actually sings translated out of Überwaldean.

Schneide meinen eigenen Hals

Or

I'm cutting my own throat.....

Also of interest: the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about the swansong with these lines:-

Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing.

Does this subtly presage Christine? Or the whole general area of death at the Opera?

The character of Christine - an appalling opera singer who can get nothing right and who is convinced of her own talent, despite sounding appalling - may be based on American socialite Florence Foster Jenkins, a rich but untalented amateur who used her money and connections to rent the Carnegie Hall to prove her ability to a sceptical world. [[1]] describes her as an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, aberrant pronunciation of libretti, and overall poor singing ability.

The Opera, as was, ends with Agnes Nitt's last defiant song of rage that effectively discharges the accumulated almost-magic and sets the stage for a new era of light operetta and musicals.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings....

Just a thought here on a visual gag. Nanny Ogg as ballerina. On the Muppet Show, wasn't there a running gag where Miss Piggy would insist on the prima ballerina spot, and as "Ballerina Pig" would act as much the same sort of highly visible sack of bricks in a tutu?