As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement, Introduction et marche royale du lion, through portraits of elephants and donkeys ("Those with Long Ears") to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs.

The Carnival of the Animals (1887), one of the composer's most famous works, although far from a typical chamber piece, is written for eleven players, and is considered by Grove's Dictionary to be part of Saint-Saëns's chamber output. Grove rates it as "his most brilliant comic work, parodying Offenbach, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Rossini, his own Danse macabre and several popular tunes".

            

 

The scene:

 

In the midst of the gala masquerade ball, the Phantom, costumed as the Red Death, makes his first appearance since the chandelier disaster after "Masquerade”. He announces to the stunned guests that he has written an opera and he demands that it be produced immediately, with Christine in the lead role and vanishes in a flash of fire and smoke.                                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mON5dbdm63M