Empedocles Goes Classic - Earth Quiz

Answer: She is hidden in the tomb where Radames will be buried alive

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was a prolific Italian opera composer, most famous for his choirs in operas. His very well known opera "Aida" (premiered in 1871) was one of the highlights in his career.
Aida is an Ethiopian princess, slave to the Egyptian pharaoh. She is secretly in love with Radames, a great Egyptian warrior. Amneris, Pharaoh's daughter, would like to marry Radames, but her love is refuted.
Radames is chosen as the commander of the Egyptian army to fight against an Ethiopian revolt, led by Aida's father Amonasro. After the battle, Radames is granted a triumph ("Gloria all'Egitto" - the Triumph march) and brings Amonasro in chains.
Amonasro escapes and instigates Aida to find out where Radames will battle. Amneris overhears Radames' betrayal. The High Court condemns Radames for high treason and sentences him to be buried alive.
In the final scene, Radames is entombed and then finds out that Aida is hidden in the tomb. They die in each other's arms.
The pyre is associated with Joan of Arc (operas by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Michael Balfe, Arthur Honegger...), Queen Dido of Carthage (opera by Henry Purcell) or Brünnhilde the Valkyrie ("Götterdämmerung" by Richard Wagner).
In one of the alternative endings to Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake", the white swan Odette drowns herself.
Consumption is the fate of, among others, Violetta Valery ("La Traviata" by Verdi) and Mimi (the heroine in Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème").

Answer: Antonin Dvorak

A little remark on the orthography of these names. Most of these names use diacritic marks such as the hacek (a little symbol which you can compare to a minuscule v in superscript), which are not always adequately rendered on screen. So I've left out all diacritics - not only in the options, but in this information section too.
"From the New World" (I'll spare you the Czech title) is nowadays known as Symphony number 9 in E minor, and is by far the most popular symphony by Antonin Dvorak. It has been called Symphony number 8 by Dvorak himself, while it was the fifth published symphony of his (hence it is sometimes also called Symphony number 5).
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) was a Czech composer famous for his symphonies (especially "From the New World") and the "Slavonic Dances". He also left us a dozen operas.
Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869) was a Russian composer. "The Stone Guest" is the highlight of his six operas.
Erno Dohnanyi (1877-1960) chose to Germanise his name to Ernst von Dohnanyi. This pianist, conductor and composer is best known for his "Variations on a Nursery Tune".
Ivan Dzerzhinsky (1909-1978) was a Russian composer. The pinnacle of his productions was the opera "Quiet Flows the Don".

Answer: Peer Gynt

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. Besides "Peer Gynt", the music we were looking for, he also left us a piano concerto and some lyric pieces for piano.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a famous Norwegian playwright and poet.
The theatre play "Peer Gynt" relates to a young man, reputedly good for nothing. He wanders off, dreams about meeting trolls (one of them takes him "In the Hall of the Mountain King"), travels through Africa and the Middle East, and finally comes home to his beloved one, who sings a lullaby to him ("Solveig's Song").
Parts of Grieg's music were later rearranged by the composer himself into two suites, which contain all the highlights of "Peer Gynt": "Morning Mood", "Aase's Death", "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Solveig's Song".
"Eddan" is a symphonic poem by Mats Wendt (born 1965).
"Vinland Saga" is an album by the Norwegian band Leaves Eyes, a group that produces symphonic metal.
"Secret of the Runes" is an album by the Swedish symphonic metal group Therion.

Answer: French Can-Can

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) was a French composer of German origin. He created over 180 operettas and operas. He introduced the Can-Can in his opera buffa "Orphée aux Enfers" ("Orpheus in the Underworld", 1858) and repeated it from then on in many other of his productions.
The Can-Can, later called French Can-Can, was probably a quite ancient dance style. One source states that some Egyptian mural paintings in tombs show the high kick typical of the Can-Can. Offenbach chose very vivid music to accompany this exhausting dance. Typical moves are the high kick, the 'rond de jambe en l'air', cartwheels and the 'grand écart'.
Rumour has it that the girls performing a Can-can frequently danced without any underwear. This might be true of dance clubs of ill reputation, but most major clubs had strict rules about it: the girls may show their legs but not the most private parts. Although most clubs did prevent too much exposure, the Can-Can was quite infamous in that time - when a true lady would not even show her ankles.
Offenbach had some followers. Franz Lehar (1870-1948) used a Can-Can in "The Merry Widow" and Cole Porter (1891-1964) dedicated a musical to the "French Can-Can".
Habanera is a Cuban dance rhythm (named after the Cuban capital Havana). The most notorious example in classical music is the aria in "Carmen" by Georges Bizet (1838-1875).
Allemande is a Baroque dance. Almost every Baroque composer has used the allemande in their operas. Let's name Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) and George Frederic Handel (1685-1759). Its name refers to Germany, where the rhythm originates.
The Polovtsian dances are the best known part of the opera "Prince Igor" by the Russian composer Alexander Borodin. Its name doesn't refer to a specific region, but to a tribe of Eurasian nomads fleeing for the Mongols during the Thirteenth Century. They settled in and around present-day Hungary.

Answer: Joaquin Rodrigo

The "Concerto de Aranjuez" was composed in such a way that the audience would sense the beauty of the gardens to the Royal Palace in Aranjuez. According to the composer, the audience should smell the flowers and see a dance party in ancient times.
Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999) was a Spanish pianist and composer.
Rodrigo has left us one musical comedy, one ballet, one symphonic poem, two piano concerti, a flute concerto, a violin concerto, a harp concerto, two cello concerti and at least seven guitar concerti.
Carvalho (1745-1799) was a Portuguese composer. He composed at least five operas and a dozen serenades.
Ivanovici (1845-1902) was a Romanian composer and military band leader. His best known work is the waltz "Waves of the Danube".
Paisiello (1740-1816) was a prolific Italian composer. He created at least 92 operas, twenty-odd cantatas, a dozen oratorios, about fifty works for Napoleonic religious chapels, and so on. His best known opera is "La serva padrona" ("The Maid Mistress").

Answer: Appalachian Spring

Copland (1900-1990) was an American composer. He composed two operas, at least six ballets, and at least five other pieces of stage music. Some of his other best known works are the "Fanfare for the Common Man" and the ballet "Billy the Kid".
"Appalachian Spring" was commissioned by the famous dancer Martha Graham. Copland wrote the ballet score for a small orchestra with thirteen instruments.
"Appalachian Spring" is set in Pennsylvania around 1800. A couple celebrates their marriage near a spring that provides the community with potable water.
The other titles I've mentioned are figments of my imagination. As far as my research stretches, I've found no classical music named after the Andes, the Alps or the Himalayas. There are of course well known compositions referring to those mountains. For instance "The Sound of Music", a musical by Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein (1895-1960), is set in the Alps. And the zarzuela "El Condor Pasa" by Daniel Robles (1871-1942) refers to the Andes.

Answer: A witches' Sabbath

All these possible answers refer to a composition by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). Most of these works were posthumously rearranged and/or completed by some of his colleagues.
The "Night at the Bare Mountain" is the setting for a witches' Sabbath on St. John's Eve. In 1867, Mussorgsky completed a first version of this fantasy on June 23rd, St. John's Eve.
In this first version, a number of witches gather on the mountain top, awaiting Satan's arrival while gossiping. When Satan arrives, the witches praise Satan in obscene ways. Then Satan has a passionate night with one or more witches he chose.
"The Wedding" is the title of one of Mussorgsky's operas.
The fair refers to another of his operas: "The Fair at Sorochyntsi".
The exhibition is the title for a piano suite by Mussorgsky: "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Answer: Stephen Rush

"The Murders at the Rue Morgue" is based upon the eponymous detective story by Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849), allegedly the first detective story ever published.
It describes a double murder on two women, in a room on the fourth floor that was locked from inside. Furthermore, the neighbours have heard some language they couldn't recognise. You'll have to read the story or go to the opera to find out who murdered the two women.
There are very few classical compositions named after streets. The "Rue Morgue" from the title is incidentally a fictive street.
Stephen Rush (born 1958) is the composer we were looking for. He is a music professor at the University of Michigan and director of the Digital Music Ensemble. Some other titles of his are the operas "Stop Blaming Columbus" and "Two Candles Burning", the sextet "Short Stacks" and the orchestral composition "Possession for Orchestra".
Charles Gounod (1818-1893) is best known for his opera "Faust" and for the "Ave Maria" - an arrangement of a work initially composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) was an Armenian composer, most famous for his "Sabre Dance" from the opera "Gayane".
Gheorghe Enescu (1881-1955) was a Romanian composer and violinist. His only opera is "Oedipe" ("Oedipus").

Answer: L'Europe galante

André Campra (1660-1744) was a French composer who left us at least seventeen operas and ballets. Highlights of his productions are the operas "Tancrède" and "Idoménée", and the ballet "Les fêtes vénitiennes" ("The Venetian Parties").
"L'Europe galante" ("Gallant Europe") starts with a prologue in which the goddess of love and the goddess of hate argue about which one of them has the greatest influence. In each of the following movements (called entrées) we see some lovers dancing around in France, Spain, Italy and Turkey.
"Les Indes Galantes" ("The Gallant Indies") is a ballet by Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) on a related theme. Only the place of action differs: the different acts are set in Turkey, Peru, Persia and North-America.
Both "L'Europe galante" and "Les Indes galantes" lack an English title. I've translated the titles myself.
"Le bourgeois gentilhomme" ("The Middle-Class Aristocrat") is a ballet by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), based upon the theatre play by Molière (1622-1673). In 1979, George Balanchine (1904-1983) made a choreography with the same title to a concert suite by Richard Strauss (1864-1949).
"Le malade imaginaire" ("The Imaginary Invalid") is another theatre play by Molière, to which Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704) composed incidental music and some intermezzi.

Answer: Land of Hope and Glory

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) was a prolific English composer. I'll mention just a few of his works: the orchestral piece "Enigma Variations", the symphonic study "Falstaff" and the oratorio "The Apostles".
Elgar composed five marches titled "Pomp and Circumstance". The most notorious of these is the first one, written in D major. Arthur C. Benson (1862-1925) wrote the lyrics for the trio part of the march.
For those of you who would like to know a bit on the other titles: "Amazing Grace" is a popular gospel song, composed in 1779 by John Newton and made famous by Mahalia Jackson.
"By the Rivers of Babylon" is the first verse of the refrain from a pop song recorded originally by the Jamaican band "The Melodians" and successfully covered by the disco group Boney M.
"Jerusalem" is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). It is the rearrangement to lyrics written in French of the original opera "I Lombardi alla prima crociata" ("The Lombards at the First Crusade").

Enough of this theory, let us now sing and rejoice:
"Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet."