Flüfferdämmerung¹⁾ is a furry opera, which name translates to Whisper Twilight. It is also being called a 'Nordic Opera'. it took place on February 22nd, 2024, in Malmö, Sweden during NordicFuzzCon. This opera is being called the 'first furry opera' online and has attracted some media attention as well as some attention in the furry community. Understanding the context of what this is takes a lot of introduction about furries.

Some things to note about the context-
The opera is constructed out of scenes from various historic operas as well as some musical numbers from disney musicals.
There is a original libretto written by Valkyrie Tina that is stitched between these scenes.
This opera was presented at a furry convention, and was not itself a paid event, but a community event at the convention.
This opera was produced by furries for furries, and not for the general public. It is a sort of celebration of furry culture.
There are embedded references and meanings that the general public may not understand (which need explained).
This opera was not written for an audience that is knowledgeable about opera or instrumental music.

I would like to write an essay about this opera and the unique cultural context is was created under. I want to talk about furries, why people are singing in fursuit and why this was performed at a furry convention. I also want to discuss hybrid media, and the use of opera as a found object. I find the way this has been stitched together interesting and I should discuss the original operas that this was constructed from. I want to avoid a conversation of taste (as in is this in good or bad taste?) and focus on why it was made and what function this serves in a contemporary community. This opera was not made for an audience that is literate to operas or people who know any of the canon that was plundered to make it. I would like to discuss this curious intersection and the complexities that arise from it.

Produced by Vozzy & Chester
Libretto by Valkyrie Tina
Narrated by Pinky Fennec
Singers-
Modi: Chester The Geroo
Forsetti: Dan The Singing Tiger
Grettir: Little Alpha Pup
Heroes: NFC Dance Ensemble
Musicians-
Violin/Piano: Vozzy The Fox
Contrabass: Kimbo Burr
Piano/Flute/Hurdy-Gurdy: Coda Thayle
Production crew-
Choreographer: Nimalen
Lights, Sound & Video: NFC STEW

Explain what furries are and what a furry convention is.
Explain the context of Nordic fuzzCon
Discuss opera in closed communities, the system of tropes that are present in this work,
Discuss why is this opera made of pieces of other operas
Discuss the work as presented to an opera-uninitiated audience
Dive into the source materials, from the libretto to the various operatic scenes used.
discuss this hybrid dramaturgy producing a new narrative from elements of existing ones
discuss fursuits and the furry voice (especially in reference to disney and gay camp)
potentially interview/contact members and get clarifying information about the event.

I am doing an essay in Voice Studies on the the Furry Voice
There will at least some overlap in topics between these two essays
The most pronounced aspect will be the commonality of the bibliographies and the sources i'm reading
I plan on making all written materials between them separately written out

I would like to be forward and direct about the relationship these two essays have and define clear lines for how they are the same and different.

Common elements-
The common aspects of the essays will be ones discussing what furries are, the existing research discussing them as a unique community, and any aspects discussing furries unique use of voice.
All aspects about the opera, and looking at it as a unique creative work will only be in this classes essay.
Flüfferdämmerung will be mentioned in my voice studies essay, but only as a brief example of furry music culture, which is not the main topic.

Present the current form of this page to the class. Have defined elements of the research topic finished.

Document the individual works in the opera, draw up and outline of the structure of the work
Read the libretto and make sense of the narrative of the work
Read some of the bibliography and start organizing thoughts on it

watch/ listen to original operatic works referenced
Read/skim a substantial amount of the bibliography, know at least 10 specific things to reference and use in the essay
Have a detailed outline of the scope of the essay finished

Writing time, have paragraphs starting to flesh out
find weak arguments and source better sources for claims if needed

Writing

12/4 essay due

Essays from class-
Is this still opera? Media operas as productive provocations, Bianca Michaels
The Dramaturgy of Opera, laurel Zeiss

Contemporary Opera in Flux, Joy Calico, in Dramaturgies of Trauma.
Postopera and Vocalic Body, Jelena Novak, in Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body
Introduction, Theorizing Opera as Hypermedium, Tereza Havelková, in Opera as Hypermedium

Essays from Nina's Class-
from The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and Gender, Wayne Koestenbaum
Opera Queens (for Contemporary_opera)
The Shut-in Fan: Opera at Home
The Codes of Deva Conduct
The Queen's Throat: Or, How to Sing

Transgender Passing Guides and the Vocal Performance of Gender and Sexuality, Stephan Pennington

from Foundations of Voice Studies An Interdisciplinary Approach to Voice Production and Perception-
8 Linguistic Uses of Voice Quality: How Voice Signals Linguistic and Pragmatic Aspects of Communication, Jody Kreiman & Diana Sidtis
9 Perception of E1notion and Personality fro1n Voice, Jody Kreiman & Diana Sidtis

from Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music-
Introduction: Theorizing Disability in Music, Neil Lerner & Joseph N. Straus
Learning to Hear Autistically, Dave Headlam
The Organ of the Soul: Voice, Damage, and Affect, Laurie Stras

Essays I have found that I am reading between both classes-
Monster Culture (Seven Thesis) Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Yerfology- ²⁾ These are readings recommended by Yerf, with the following readings I want to pull out any information I can find on how queerness and autism are interlinked into the furry fandom, I am hoping to find references to these qualities of voice in here.
The Furry Fandom: Moving Transgender into the Posthuman, Jessica Ruth Austin, SAMLA 90 conference papers ³⁾
Keeping the Magic: Fursona Identity and Performance in the Furry Fandom, Jakob Maase ⁴⁾
Wolves, Dragons, and Ponies… Oh My! Fursonas and Stigmatization in the “Human” World, Torie E. Lucas ⁵⁾
Alternative Identity Mediation Across Space and Performance, Calvin Liu (no link found yet)
Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub: Masculinities and Relationships Online, Lori Kendall
Trans youth and social media: moving between counterpublics and the wider web, Olu Jenzen, pp. 1626-1641
Breaking Down Stereotypes: A Look at the Performance of Self-Identity Within The Furry Community, Sherry A. Jeansonne ⁶⁾
“There’s A Little Bit of That Magic Where I’m Becoming Something Else”: LGBT+ Furry Identity Formation and Belonging Online, Mary Heinz, The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, vol. 10 no. 2.
Bringing out the animal in me: An examination of art and the individual within the Furry subculture, Jacqueline Danielle Guerrier
Becoming deer: Nonhuman drag and online utopias,Debra Ferreday
Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect, Mel Y Chen
Affect, Animals, and Autists: Feeling Around the Edges of the Human in Performance, -
Furry Cartography: Performing Species, Marla Carlson, Theatre Journal, Vol. 63, no. 2, pages 191-208
Posthum/an/ous: Identity, Imagination, and the Internet, Eric Stephan Altman
“It Gives me Thunder”: Reflections on “Becoming Fur.”, Chris Seabrook

Fursonas: Furries, Community, and Identity Online, Ben Silverman
Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture, Joe Strike

from Furscience: A Decade of Psychological Research on the Furry Fandom- ⁷⁾
Chapter 2 – Furry 101: A (Brief) history of the Furry Fandom, Joe Strike (specifically on the coining of the word furry)
Chapter 5 – What’s a Furry?, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 7 – Fursonas – Up Close and Fursonal, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 10 – OwO What’s This? Sex and Pornography, Thomas R. Brooks, Frances H. I. Henry, Anna R. Henry, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 11 – Fuzzy Lines: Subgroups and Furry-Adjacent Groups Stephen Reysen, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 14 – Racialized Identity Groups and Ethnicity in the Furry Fandom, Sharon E. Roberts, Camielle Adams, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 15 – Sex and Gender in the Furry Fandom, Anna Renee Henry, Frances H. I. Henry, Sharon E. Roberts, Courtney “Nuka” Plante
Chapter 16 – Sexual Orientation in the Furry Fandom, Frances H. I. Henry, Anna Renee Henry

CONTEMPORARY OPERA