Grand Opera, People and Places Quiz

Answer: Enrico Caruso

It was a time of great riches musically, to have three such great singers able to perform together. Pavarotti, sadly, is no longer with us. Domingo has gone on to even greater heights as a conductor. Carreras, who nearly died of leukemia, has set up the "Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation"

Answer: La Scala

A beautiful opera house in Milan, Italy. Construction on La Scala was begun in 1776 under the auspices of Empress Maria Theresa on the (former) site of the church of Santa Maria Della Scala. It opened in 1778 and to this day is one of the most important opera houses in the world. A number of famous operas have premiered there including many by Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini.

Answer: Japan

A beautiful opera set in Japan at about the time of expanding trade with the rest of the world. "Madame Butterfly" juxtaposes Japanese traditions of duty, honor, and family against Pinkerton's "love 'em and leave 'em" or a girl in every port attitude.

Answer: The Ring of the Nibelung

The four operas are: "Das Rheingold", "Die Walkure" (The Valkyrie), "Siegfried", and "Gotterdammerung", (the Twilight of the Gods). The four are known as "The Ring of the Nibelung" or the "Ring Cycle" or just "The Ring". The operas are based on old Norse myths. Wagner conceived and began to think and plan them in the early 1840s and completed them around 1870.

The "Ring" is easily the most massive operatic work ever composed.

Answer: 1880

The "Metropolitan Opera Association" was formed in 1880 and the first performance at the "Old Met" was "Faust", on October 22, 1883. The first Metropolitan Opera building was at 39th-40th and Broadway. I had the pleasure of attending my first opera, "Parsifal", just a couple weeks before the old house closed in April of 1966.

A new house was built at the Lincoln Center and opened in September 1966. To sing at "The Met" was the goal of virtually every singer of any note since its very beginning.

Answer: Irish

Besides singing all the famous Irish folk tunes, McCormack was a leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in the first half of the twentieth century and had the most agile male voice I have ever heard. I might even refer to him as a "Coloratura Tenor".

Answer: four

Only one of them was named "Fidelio"; the rest were named "Leonora" overtures #1, #2, and #3. I sometimes wonder why Beethoven only wrote one opera. He used thematic treatments in many of his other compositions and had some good ideas that could easily have been stretched into operas.

Answer: Trouser role

"Cherubino", from "The Marriage of Figaro", by Wolfgang Mozart is one of the best known. The role, typically, is that of a young man (or boy) and the artist is generally a mezzo-soprano. Another well known example of actors playing the role of the opposite sex is in plays by Shakespeare. There were no females on the stage in his day; males played all the parts.

Answer: Harpsichord

Most of J. S. Bach's keyboard works for the harpsichord have ben transcribed for the modern piano. Care must be exercised when playing them on a modern instrument as the harpsichord had no "volume control". The strings on a harpsichord are plucked rather than hit, as in a piano.

Answer: Ezio Pinza

Not too many opera singers cross over successfully to the Broadway stage or other popular music formats. Pinza was one who did it quite well. He was tall and elegantly good looking. Placido Domingo has done some nice duets with several "Pop" singers. Mario Lanza is an example of one who did it poorly, and it might be fairly said that trying to sing and act in Hollywood was what ruined him.