The free association of a freelance artist, no more!

At one time, I watched the 1937 film Firefly (Double Play at the Soviet box office), a musical melodrama, most likely a left-wing Hollywood hint to General Franco. The movie is primitively stupid, but Jeanette MacDonald is good there, and so is Allen Jones.

Music for the film “Firefly” by two composers – Herbert Stothart and Rudolf Frimy.

The theme is the “heroic struggle” of the Spanish people against the invasion of Napoleon. Interestingly, there were only TWO countries on the entire continent that allegedly organized the “heroic” guerrilla movement against the French troops, and both were on the margins of a rapidly progressing European civilization, because the nineteenth century had already arrived: Inquisitorial Spain and serf Russia!

Spain generally “distinguished itself”: The last Auto-de-fe, the public burning of a man at the stake, took place in Spain in 1830!!!

The only thing I liked about the film was Don Diego’s “Donkey Serenade.” A talented song! Don Diego (Allen Jones) sings to the heroine, cabaret dancer Nina Maria Azaro (Jeanette McDonald), riding in a “carriage” pulled by donkeys.

And suddenly something similar popped into my mind: the Aria of Figaro, which he sings to Cherubino’s Page in Mozart’s opera The Marriage Figaro” based on Beaumarchais’ comedy “Mad Day or the Marriage of Figaro”.

The plot with practically the same names appears in Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville.

And yet, Legato’s thinking presented to my mental eye, during this aria of Figaro, something completely strange: Monkeys were always spinning, jumping from branch to branch, swinging on their tails, flying up a tree and descending just as quickly, and other purely monkey-like cute antics and jumps.

But the aria is about something entirely different!

“The boy is frisky, curly-haired, in love,

Adonis, seduced by a woman’s caress,

Is it not enough to spin and roll,

Isn’t it time to be a man?”

Cherubino, a gentle and pampered young man (the name means little Cherub in Italian. This means that the composer’s last name is Cherubini (meaning Cherubim), and his part is usually performed by female singers.

But why would Figaro, who himself remains in the warm and safe place of Count Almaviva’s valet, begin to read edifying sermons to the young man, urging him to go into military service?

The hypocrisy of humans?

So monkeys appeared in my mind, our narrow-minded ancestors.

Although it is a mortal sin to associate innocent animals, just hopping along the branches, with a terrible two-legged creature hatched from their GENETIC FLAW, predatory mutant apes and, involuntarily, cannibals who devoured each other for two million years and “thus won” – THUS developing our dear “anthropocentric intelligence”, that is, Cannibalistic!

If the first CREATORS of life on the planet, algae and plants had known what kind of creepy creature would crown the end of this “relay race of life”, they probably would have immediately left the race and would not have transformed the Earth’s atmosphere and water two billion years ago.

But THEN they DID NOT KNOW how their hard and noble work would end!

That’s how we usually, always, START SOMETHING THOUGHTLESSLY.

As Chernomyrdin wisely said about the whole history of life on Earth:

“We wanted the best, but it turned out as always!”

So, Figaro’s aria confirms…

14 IV 2025

P.S. An addition
Aria

FIGARO
No more, you amorous butterfly,
Will you go fluttering round by night and day,
Disturbing the peace of every maid,
You pocket Narcissus, you Adonis of love.

No more will you have those fine feathers,
That light and dashing cap,
Those curls, those airs and graces,
That roseate womanish colour.

You’ll be among warriors, by Bacchus!
Long moustaches, knapsack tightly on,
Musket on your shoulder, sabre at your side,
Head erect and bold of visage,
A great helmet or a head?dress,
Lots of honour, little money,
And instead of the fandango,
Marching through the mud.
Over mountains, through valleys,
In snow and days of listless heat,
To the sound of blunderbusses,
Shells and cannons,
Whose shots make your ears sing
On every note.

The same aria of Figaro with minor changes.

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys,

Figets, at least not hooligans,

It’s not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

It’s not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

Say goodbye to coconut, banana,

And love roulades at night in a hubbub,

Forget about the flowers, the leaves.

Forget the swinging on the vines!

Forget the swinging on the vines!

Say goodbye to mango fruits,

With sugar canes full,

With fig, nuts and banana.

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys,

Bouncers and vegetarians!

Is it not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

Is it not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

To become a cannibal is harsh,

Both fanged and healthy,

With a stone, a club, a dagger,

To eat bacon.

My neighbor’s meat in bulk.

There is little honor, but there is a lot of food!

There is little honor, but there is a lot of meat!

Instead of dancing, very soon,

In the Congo, you will move through the mountains,

Through the jungle, a haze of fog

To the Congo, to the uranium deposits!

Say goodbye to coconut, banana,

And love roulades at night in a hubbub,

Forget about the flowers, the leaves.

Forget the swinging on the vines!

Forget the swinging on the vines!

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys,

Fidgets, not vegetarians!

It’s not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

It’s not enough to spin around the branches

Isn’t it time to become Homo Sapiens?

I will tell you not without flattery,

You are capable of killing,

Cannibals of honor

To become like that for a million years!

Cannibals of honor

It’s nice to eat up your neighbors!

18 VII 2025