Try Saying That Three Times Fast Quiz

Answer: Baritone

Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1962. I certainly hope not to encounter the previous phrase in a spelling contest. He studied at the local art academy and debuted his career in a supporting role in Verdi's opera "Rigoletto".

His first role in Italy was the title role in "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky. Other notable performances of his are the role of father Germont in "La Traviata" and of Count di Luna in "Il Trovatore", two of the most appreciated operas by Giuseppe Verdi. Dmitri sings the baritone voice, what some music theorists consider the most frequent male voice. Unfortunately most romantic operas need a tenor to sing the hero role, so baritones have usually to be content with secondary roles.

Answer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

No, I won't say out loud the director's name and the three red herrings (who all were part of the crew). Try saying these four names three times and I'll help you untangle your tongue.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is the director we're looking for. He was born in Bangkok (which the locals call Krungthep Mahanakhon and 134 more letters) in 1970. In 1993, he debuted his director's career with a short story named "Bullet". His first full-length movie "Dokfa Nai Meuman" (2000) won a special mention in the Vancouver International Film Festival.
"Uncle Boonmee" was his sixth full-length movie, and won a Golden Palm in Cannes. The title character is on his deathbed, and he remembers his previous reincarnations.

Answer: George Michael

Try saying his birth name three times, and then try to untangle your tongue.
George started his career in the duo Wham!, with Andrew Ridgeley. Their best known songs are "Careless Whisper" (1984) and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (1984). In 1987, George started his solo career with the Album "Faith" and the disputed single "I Want Your Sex". His duet with Elton John, titled "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", was another highlight in George's career.
George Michael has had multiple problems in his private life. There has been commotion about his sexual orientation, and he has been fined a few times for drug possession or drug abuse.
Randy George is an American guitarist with the group Ajalon.
Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd) started his musical career with the group Culture Club. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" and "Karma Chameleon".
George Baker is the stage name of the Dutch singer Johannes Bouwens. He led his group, the George Baker Selection, to the global hit charts with songs as "Paloma Blanca".

Answer: N!Xau

"The Gods Must Be Crazy" was the first movie with which Jamie Uys broke through internationally. It is a comedy filmed from the point of view of the Bushman, a tribe living in the Kalahari desert.
The group Bushmen to which Xi belonged, had never met any people from other ethnic descents. The story started when something fell out of the sky, perhaps dropped by "a bird that doesn't flap its wings". The audience recognized the object as an empty bottle of Coca-Cola, but neither the bottle nor what should be in it were familiar to the Bushmen. They considered it a gift from their gods, and tried to come up with the most creative uses. But as there was only one of these weird objects, it became the origin of some conflicts. So Xi took it upon him to walk to the end of the world and drop the item, to give it back to the gods.
N!Xau is the only South-African mentioned among the options. As a typical member of the Bushman people, he is used to speaking in a language which has many click sounds (without an equivalent in English). These click sounds are generally represented by an exclamation mark, which we also find in N!Xau's name. It also makes it quite difficult for an Englishman to say his name three times fast.
Qarshe (1924-1994) was a Somalian musician and playwright.
Mambety (1945-1998) was a Senegalese movie director.
Nneka (born 1980) was a Nigerian singer-songwriter.

Answer: Cello

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (try saying his name three times and I'll help you untangle your tongue) was born in Baku (Azerbaijan, then the Soviet Union) in 1927. He studied piano, cello and composition at the Moscow Conservatory. After graduation, he became a professor of cello at the conservatories of Moscow and Leningrad (now called St-Petersburg).
Rostropovich' international career started in 1963 in Liège (Belgium). He was one of the best known cellists worldwide.
The recorder is an ancient type of traverse flute. The serpent was an ancient type of brass instrument, one of the early predecessors to today's euphonium. Chimes are a percussion instrument, better known as tubular bells.

Answer: Valentin

Maksim Alexandrovich Chmerkovskij was born in Odessa in 1980. His brother Valentin was born in 1986. Both started dancing quite early, specialising in ballroom and Latin-American dances. So the correct answer was Valentin Alexandrovich Cmerkovskij - try to say this three times fast and you'll need professional help to untangle your tongue.
When the American TV company ABC started the show "Dancing with the Stars" in the summer of 2005, they wanted to couple professional dancers to celebrities (singers, musicians, actors or actresses, sports people...) One of the first professional dancers engaged was Maksim Chmerkovskij, who competed in 13 seasons. Maksim was twice runner-up and twice the third ranking, but never won. His brother Valentin competed for the first time in season 13, and was third in season 15 and runner-up in season 16.
Larisa is the first name of Maksim and Valentin's mother. Nastasja and Katinka are two popular Ukranian girl's names.

Answer: Finland

Esa-Pekka Salonen was born in Helsinki in 1958. At school, he studied horn, composition and conducting. The conducting classmates Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and the composing student Magnus Lindberg started an experimental ensemble named Tomii. (Now try say the previous sentence three times fast and I'll alert the stretcher-bearers to pick you up for an emergency tongue cutting.)
Salonen's conducting career started locally in 1979 (conducting some of his own compositions) and internationally in 1983.

Answer: Drive

Ryan Gosling played in all these movies, but Nicholas Winding Refn only directed one of them.
Nicholas Winding Refn was born in 1970 in Kobnhavn, the capital city known in English as Copenhagen. (Now try to say this three times fast and I'll give you an ice cold lolly to try to untangle your tongue). He started his career with the "Pusher" trilogy and made two TV movies based upon the Agatha Christie stories involving Miss Jane Marple.
The first movie for which Nicholas cast Ryan Gosling, was "Drive" (2011). In this movie, Ryan Gosling plays a garage mechanic who's also active as a stunt driver. When he gets romantically involved with his neighbour and finds out her husband is imprisoned, things start to get complicated.
"Remember the Titans" (2000) was a sports drama directed by Boaz Yakin.
"Drowning by Numbers" (1988) was a crime drama directed by Peter Greenaway.
"Blue Valentine" (2010) was a romance directed by Derek Cianfrance.

Answer: Bulgarian

Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian composer, perhaps best known for his piano concerti. He left us three complete operas. "Aleko" is a love story in a band of gypsies, with fatal ending. I refer here to the recording made in 1996, with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rouslan Raychev.
I was intrigued by the names of these solo artists, but alas - their biographies are lacking on internet. There is a full biography of Blagovesta Karnobatlova-Dobreva and a very succinct discography of Pavel Kourshoumov and Nicola Ghiuselev. Tony Christova and Dimitar Petkov seem to have no biography at all on the internet.
Petkov also recorded "Khovanshchina", an opera by Modest Mussorgsky.
Ghiuselev has recorded several operas, among others "Carmen" (by Bizet) and "Aida" (by Verdi). He also recorded sacral music and he participated at one Mozart gala.

Answer: Trois Couleurs: Rouge

All these movies were directed by Polish people.
Krzysztof Kieslowski (before you try to say his name three times fast: the "r" is silent. And now you can unleash those angry cats that are inside you) was born in Warsaw in 1941. The best known highlights of his career are the productions he made towards the end of his career: the TV miniseries "Dekalog" (ten episodes, loosely based upon the ten commandments), the movie "La double vie de Veronique" (1991) about a Parisian Veronique whose life was affected when her Polish namesake Weronika died mysteriously, and the trilogy "Trois Couleurs" (with each of the colours on the French flag symbolizing one of the virtues proclaimed by the French revolution: liberty - equality -fraternity).
"Les possédés" (1988) was a movie by Andrzej Warda based upon a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It told the story of a small hamlet in Russia where young revolutionaries start actions against the traditional feudal organization of Russian society (in 1870).
"Repulsion" (1965) was a horror thriller by Roman Polanski.
Agnès Varda directed « Sans toit ni loi » (1985), the story of a young vagabond dying in a ditch. Through flashbacks we get to know her last weeks.