The Carnival of the Animals and xylophone. From the beginning, Saint-Saëns regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was "such fun" (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer, but it was first performed at a private concert given by the cellist Charles Lebouc on Shrove Tuesday, 9 March 1886. A second (private) performance was given
The Carnival Is Over de Oever van de Rotte". It is played in a cafe scene in the 1988 film "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Tom Springfield adapted the melody from the Russian folk song, and also wrote the lyrics, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio. The melody is played repeatedly in an early episode of TV series "The Twilight Zone" – Season 1 Episode 3, entitled "Mr. Denton On Doomsday", first aired in 1959. The playing of "The Carnival Is Over", sung by The Seekers, has been sometimes used at the close of special events in Australia.