Robyn’s BalleRATS recreates popular ballet subjects as mice and rats.

Poor overworked CindeRATla (Cinderella) contemplates her remaining ballet “glass slipper” as she dreams of the Prince reuniting her with the other shoe. She has kindly left a tasty piece of cheese for the house-mouse.

The NutcRATcker (Nutcracker) wears his traditional military uniform and bares his fangs in anticipation of a hard nut to crack. If he doesn’t find one soon, his tail may be a substitute!

The Sugarplum FaiRAT (Sugar Plum Fairy) is the prettiest rodent in a tutu; as the sovereign of sweets she is ready to grant a “sweet” wish to rat-lovers everywhere with a wave of her magic wand.

Robyn’s OpeRATic Mouseterpieces feature costumed mice and rats as noted opera characters.

This “tail” of the dashing Devil Mefistofele by Arratgo Boito (Arrigo Boito) rises from the flames of Hell to bring Mefistofele’s tempting vision of the world to Faust.

Bizet’s Caratmen (Carmen) the irresistible gypsy is ready for music, dancing, singing, love, luck and murder; she has drawn the ace of spades, the “death” card of folklore. Her smouldering cigarette refers to her job in the cigarette factory as well as to her dangerous nature, and her knife is sheathed after she has slashed another worker.

Leoncavallo’s Pagliratcci (Pagliacci) means players or clowns, but there’s no clowning around or amusement to be wrought from his tragic story of love, sadness, deceit, betrayal and death. As an entertainer he smiles in spite of himself.

Beautiful and alluring Manon by Mousenet (Massenet) waits with lost innocence in the shadows of the evening for her lover. Her frivolous, greedy pleasures will soon turn into shame, disgrace, regret and an early demise.

The Russian Tsar Borats (Boris) Godunov by Mousesorgsky (Mussorgsky) has temporarily retired to a monastery in Moscow and is contemplating a life of religion as he fingers his cross. Though his vestment is decorated with mouse-saints, his regal bejeweled dress shows he hasn’t forsaken the trappings of wealth and position.

Delicate and innocent, Puccini’s Madame Butteratfly (Butterfly) shields herself from a lashing Japanese rainstorm. Her mournful expression reflects her uncertain mood as she awaits the return of the husband who has abandoned her.

Puccini’s exotic Turatndot (Turandot), a capricious and vicious Chinese princess, smirks and clasps her ratty paws in glee as her various suitors fail to answer the riddles necessary to win her hand and are subsequently executed. Her gloating will soon turn to horror as a Prince succeeds in the challenge.

The clever, handsome and self-reliant Barbrat (Barber) of Seville by Ratsini (Rossini) sings as he strums a guitar, his barber implements visible in his front pocket. His cunning schemes resolve many predicaments and make him indispensable ...and wealthier.

The courtesan Violetta in Verdi’s La Tratviata (Traviata) has just written and shed tears over a farewell letter to her lover. Her selflessness in setting him free, coupled with the consumption evident in her paleness, will lead to her death. The camellia flowers in her hair and dress reference the original source of this tragic story.

The sinister, mocking grin of the cursed humpbacked dwarf Ratgoletto (Rigoletto) by Verdi is mild compared to the evil which befalls this jester when his beloved only daughter is abducted, mortally wounded, and her dying body given to him in a sack.

In Verdi’s Un Ballo in Mousechera (Maschera) the secret identity of the nobleman Riccardo who attends the “masked ball” is revealed by the colors of his garment beneath his black cloak with the red ribbon: the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag indicates he is King Gustav III.

The noble hero Siegfratd (Siegfried) by Wagner gazes heavenward for inspiration; the swan-decorated armor and horn will aid him in his mythic quest to rouse and slay the dragon in the “Ring of the Nibelung” operatic saga. The spear he holds is a reference to the weapon of his adversary Wotan.

Robyn’s Mouseterpieces  transform Old Master portrait paintings into subtle new works of art featuring mice and rats.

German artist Albrat (Albrecht) Durer’s handsome self-portrait shows him as the Renaissance ideal of an accomplished gentleman. Durer was a supreme draftsman, printmaker, painter and a noted writer on mathematics and proportion.

The intoxicated god of wine Bacchus by Caratvaggio (Caravaggio) could well be a symbol for the theatrical and dissolute life the notorious artist led as he swaggered and brawled his way through Italy. His shocking realism, dramatic style of painting and use of color and chiaroscuro dazzled his contemporaries.

Nicknamed “The Greek”, El Gratco (Greco) was noted for his unique style, a legacy of his training in the earlier Byzantine icon tradition grafted onto the Mannerism of his era. The spiritual, elongated figure of St John the Evangelist is painted in vibrant and contrasting colors.

The delicate portrait of this pensive young woman with a fan by Spanish painter Fratcisco (Francisco) Goya is in contrast to his many horrific compositions of war, death and destruction. The tail threaded through the chair-back hints at the deaf artist’s tortured mental state.

The Renaissance artist Ratphael (Raphael) is noted for his perfect and pretty paintings of religious subjects, but he couldn’t avoid letting the crafty, ratty gaze of this Italian cardinal peek through.

This unsparingly realistic painting of Queen Artemesia by Dutch realist Rembrat (Rembrandt) is said to be modeled on his wife Saskia and is painted in the year of their marriage. Only the last of their four children survived, and Saskia died soon after his birth.

Seurat (no name change needed!) developed the French pointillism technique in which tiny dots of color combine to create a harmonious image of optical effects. This stylish and scintillating circus performer is from a painting left incomplete at his death.

English artist Thomouse (Thomas) Gainsborough is noted for the exquisite calmness of elegant portraits set into impressionistically painted landscapes that display the speed of his brushwork. His art often reveals a yearning for an idyllic country existence.

Known as the “Spanish Caravaggio”, Zurburatn (Zurburan) excelled in depicting religious subjects with somber and precise realism. This pretty girl holds the instrument and palm of her martyrdom as she smiles at the viewer.

Robyn’s Musical Mouseterpieces are famous composers of music translated into talented rats and mice.

The brilliant and mischievous Mouzart (Mozart), surely one of the most famous and loved of all composers, is shown wearing around his neck the “Order of the Golden Spur”. When he received this honor from the Pope at the “advanced” age of 14, he had been composing music for 9 years!

The incredibly gifted, precocious Franco-Polish pianist and composer Frederat (Frederic) Chopin exhibits the delicate pallor caused by the tuberculosis which would consume his life by age 39.  The dawn background and portrait miniature reference Chopin’s ten-year love affair with novelist Aurore Dupin-Dudevant, better known as George Sand. 
                     
Russian composer Dmitrat (Dmitri) Shostakovich wears the golden star of the “Hero of Socialist Labor”.  The Soviet Union flag behind him bears musical notes which spell his name in a “DSCH” motif, a recurring theme in his music. His perilous struggle was to find gray spaces within the black and white severity of Soviet censorship where he could compose expressive and idiosyncratic music.   

Fratnz Schubrat (Franz Schubert), often ill and always impoverished, lived his 31 years with the brilliant energy exhibited by the “trout” of his famous Quintet: as a composer he swam tirelessly after musical beauty; as a bohemian he made time for joyous frolics with friends. Possessing an unrivaled genius for melody, Schubert composed hundreds of orchestral, chamber and vocal works, many performed at the celebrated “Schubertiads”.

The charismatic Italian Gioachino Ratsini (Rossini) composed 39 operas by the time he was 37, a feat that made him feted throughout Europe, and then never wrote another!  He was a musician and singer who created many piano and sacred works during his last 4 decades and once said “give me a laundry list and I will set it to music”.  A witty bon vivant, his music overflows with memorable melodies, effervescent comedy and tenderness. 

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