Nearly everyone who appears on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York has to audition — and that includes the snake that will briefly take center stage in an upcoming adaptation of a Mozart classic.

The job of deciding who wins the s-s-s-s-starring reptilian role falls to Zoe Ziegfeld, a carnival performer-turned-opera actor cast as the snake handler in the Met's version of "Così fan tutte," which is set in a 1950s Coney Island-inspired world.

Ziegfeld's audition process is hands-on. They take each snake, let it slither and wrap around them, and then hoist the animal overhead — rehearsing the moves they will perform under the bright lights at center stage during each show. Ziegfeld also looks each snake in the eye, nearly face-to-face, to gauge its demeanor.

"I need to know that the animal is comfortable with people and with what we are doing," Ziegfeld said.

The winner of the cold-blooded competition was a boa constrictor named Princess, a larger snake with a stronger visual presence on stage. Boa constrictors, non-venomous constrictor snakes native to Central and South America, are commonly handled in live performances precisely because they tolerate human contact and can be safely draped over a handler's body — the very quality Ziegfeld's audition was designed to test.

"We will be moving forward with Princess (the big sun-glow boa constrictor who is yellow-peach) in rehearsals on a trial basis! She is a wonderful snake, and the trial is not about her, but rather about me and my strength," Ziegfeld wrote in an email after the auditions concluded.

Princess will have an understudy: Nala, a slightly smaller brown boa constrictor that auditioned in a second round.

This marks the third time Ziegfeld has played the snake charmer in the Met's staging of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera. In Mozart's original, two Italian soldiers test their lovers' fidelity by pretending to depart for war, then disguise themselves and attempt to seduce each other's girlfriends. In the Met's version, the plot remains largely the same, but the action unfolds at a 1950s Coney Island carnival, complete with vibrant scenery and sideshow performers. The staging is part of a broader tradition at opera houses of resetting classic works in new settings, and the sideshow framing is what creates room for the carnival acts — snakes included — on an opera stage.

Ziegfeld arrived at the role with authentic credentials, having spent a couple of seasons on Coney Island performing eight snake-charming shows a day. When Ziegfeld first auditioned several years ago, live snakes were not permitted in the audition space, so they brought video of their snake-charming act instead — and reinforced their carnival sideshow bona fides by hammering a nail into their own nasal cavity in an act known as the Human Blockhead.

"The music's different. The money is different. It's a pleasure to entertain. And with snakes, it's a delight to know that there are people watching who are in awe and people who are terrified. And those things happen at the Met and at Coney — so I would say they are more alike than different, to be honest," Ziegfeld said.

The snakes made it to their auditions thanks to Nancy Novograd and her company, All Tame Animals. Novograd entered the business after her horse appeared on stage at the Met in a production of "Carmen," and she now supplies the opera house with animals ranging from elephants to insects. The use of trained animal handlers and suppliers like Novograd reflects the practical demands of putting live animals on stage: theaters typically rely on professional vendors rather than sourcing animals directly, both for training and for welfare and safety compliance.

The first two snakes to audition were on the small side — one might even have clashed with Ziegfeld's outfit. But personality is the key factor, Novograd explained.

"Animals have to perform as do human talent. Sometimes they have a set type of behaviors that they have to demonstrate. And sometimes they just have to get along with the talent," Novograd said. "So in this case, they have to be the right color, size, and Zoe has to like them."