Chicago has a serious feral cat problem.
Ensemble is a webcomic based on Mozart's operas written by Red/Ursula
. It follows the adventures of Tamino— a once-normal house cat who has discovered that he is, in fact, an "opera cat", one of the anthropomorphic cats that lives in the Civilized Animal society within the streets of Chicago— as he sets out on a quest given by The Queen of the Night to save her daughter, Pamina, from the supposedly-evil Sarastro. Along the way, he meets other characters from the Mozartean operatic canon, and begins to realize that his ultimate destiny lies beyond the Queen's quest- and might be darker than his wildest dreams.
Ensemble can be read on its Tumblr page here. As of 2021, Red has indicated they intend on retooling the webcomic into a novel, which will serve as more of a straight adaptation of The Magic Flute than the hodgepodge of Mozart operas featured in Ensemble.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Compared to his operatic counterpart, Tamino tends to be more abrasive.
- Almighty Janitor: The lower-class characters, such as Figaro, Susanna, and Leporello, tend to be the ones with greater insight into other characters and the city as a whole.
- Arc Words: No star is ever lost we once have seen, we always may be what we might have been…
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Both Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva qualify, although Don Giovanni is far more threatening.
- Art Shift: Tends to happen when characters tell stories or make plans.
- Back from the Dead: The evil Don Giovanni is initially thrown into an eternal fiery punishment… only to be freed by Tamino, rendering him this.
- Cats Are Mean: Played staight, averted, and subverted, given all of the characters are cats.
- Cats Hate Water: Tamino is afraid of water. Seems to be averted with the other characters.
- Cheerful Child: Cherubino, who is innocent enough that they remain blissfully unaware of the dark events in the plot.
- Civilized Animal: The opera cats have their own barber shops, bars, politics, and wars.
- Damsel out of Distress: Pamina doesn't tolerate being held hostage one second longer than she has to.
- The Eeyore: Poor Leporello...
- Fish out of Water: Tamino, being accustomed to life with humans, is reasonably awkward with the intricacies of the opera cats' society.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The conflict between The Queen of the Night and Sarastro is not as cut-and-dry as Tamino is initially led to believe, and both are hinted to be morally ambiguous at best.
- The Hedonist: Despina is this, with a side of It Amused Me. She decides to work for Don Giovanni only because she considers his deeds entertaining.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Tamino is the one who frees Don Giovanni from his fiery fate, not realizing Don Giovanni is a horrible person. He also thinks positively of the Queen of the Night, who is hinted to be morally gray at best.
- The Ingenue: Elvira, in her backstory.
- Love at First Sight: A somewhat unusual case where Tamino falls in love with Pamina after seeing her enchanted portrait.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In Tamino’s dreams, he frequently talks to Tigrissa, a spiritual representation of the flute he carries with him. Whether Tigrissa is an actual ghostly spirit or just Tamino’s subconscious is left purposely unclear.
- Magical Flutist: Subverted. As in the opera, Tamino is given a magical flute to protect him, but it doesn’t appear to actually do anything, except for possibly giving him spiritual advice in his dreams.
- Missing Mom: Both of Tamino's parents seem to be this, and Tamino expresses a desire to find them and make them proud. Naturally, when he figures out his mother died years ago, he doesn't take it too well.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tamino's gullibility leads to Don Giovanni being released from his eternal punishment.
- A Pet into the Wild: Tamino is this, although not by his own doing.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Monostatos is the only character in the comic to sport red eyes, and he’s less than kind to just about everybody.
- Save the Princess: Initially defied. Pamina's predicament is resolved at the story's outset (or at least it appears to be at first), and the rest of the plot deviates significantly from the narrative of the original opera. However, as of the 12/13/20 update, it appears the story is pointing toward her being captured by Sarastro's forces once again.
- Servile Snarker: Many of the lower-class characters qualify, but especially Leporello and Susanna.
- Solar and Lunar: Sarastro and The Queen of the Night, respectively, as well as Tamino and Pamina.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Twice. First, Tamino’s first brush with death in the comic comes from a snake who attempts to eat him (he’s saved by the Queen’s guards), secondly, the villainous shapeshifter Monostatos’s primary form is that of a snake.
- Sssssnake Talk: Monostatos tends to speak this way.
- Strong Family Resemblance: It’s commented by various other characters that Tamino is the spitting image of both his parents, but especially mother. Who his parents are, exactly, has not been stated yet.
- Subordinate Excuse: This is part of Leporello's reasoning as to why he still is in the Don's employment.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Several cats complain that Tamino needs to be less stubborn, saying that otherwise he'll end up killed like his (unseen) mother was.
