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Russian Opera Trivia Quiz

Russian operas are not so well-known as the Italian, but there are some true gems to be discovered! Which Russian composer wrote the opera I name?

A multiple-choice quiz by aiken. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
aiken

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
89,932

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
20

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
13 / 20

Plays
472

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 20

1. "A Life for the Tsar"? Hint

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Alexander Borodin

Mikhail Glinka

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

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Question 2 of 20

2. "The Stone Guest"? Hint

Mikhail Glinka

Igor Stravinsky

Sergei Rachmaninov

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

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Question 3 of 20

3. "Prince Igor"? Hint

Sergei Rachmaninov

Cesar Cui

Arthur Rubinstein

Alexander Borodin

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Question 4 of 20

4. "Boris Godunov"? Hint

Cesar Cui

Modest Mussorgsky

Alexander Borodin

Alexander Glazunov

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Question 5 of 20

5. "Eugene Onegin"? Hint

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Cesar Cui

Mikhail Glinka

Peter Tchaikovsky

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Question 6 of 20

6. "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"? Hint

Alexander Glazunov

Mily Balakirev

Peter Tchaikovsky

Dmitry Shostakovich

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Question 7 of 20

7. "Sadko"? Hint

Alexander Borodin

Mikhail Glinka

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

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Question 8 of 20

8. "Kovanschina"? Hint

Sergei Rachmaninov

Mily Balakirev

Arthur Rubinstein

Modest Mussorgsky

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Question 9 of 20

9. "Ruslan and Ludmilla"? Hint

Mikhail Glinka

Aleksandr Serov

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Cesar Cui

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Question 10 of 20

10. "The Captive of the Caucasus"? Hint

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Mily Balakirev

Aleksandr Serov

Cesar Cui

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Question 11 of 20

11. "The Queen of Spades"? Hint

Peter Tchaikovsky

Alexander Borodin

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Mily Balakirev

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Question 12 of 20

12. "War and Peace"? Hint

Arthur Rubinstein

Sergei Prokofiev

Alexander Glazunov

Peter Tchaikovsky

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Question 13 of 20

13. "Mozart and Salieri"? Hint

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Igor Stravinsky

Mikhail Glinka

Cesar Cui

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Question 14 of 20

14. "Raphael"? Hint

Alexander Borodin

Sergei Rachmaninov

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Anton Arensky

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Question 15 of 20

15. "Feast in the Time of Plague"? Hint

Nikolai Medtner

Sergei Rachmaninov

Cesar Cui

Mily Balakirev

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Question 16 of 20

16. "Mavra"? Hint

Alexander Borodin

Yuri Shaporin

Nikolai Medtner

Igor Stravinsky

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Question 17 of 20

17. "Mateo Falcone"? Hint

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Cesar Cui

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Arthur Rubinstein

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Question 18 of 20

18. "The Snow Maiden"? Hint

Alexander Borodin

Igor Stravinsky

Sergei Rachmaninov

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

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Question 19 of 20

19. "Esmeralda"? Hint

Peter Tchaikovsky

Cesar Cui

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Alexander Glazunov

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Question 20 of 20

20. "Aleko"? Hint

Mikhail Glinka

Alexander Borodin

Igor Stravinsky

Sergei Rachmaninov

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "A Life for the Tsar"?

Answer: Mikhail Glinka

First performed in 1836, the opera was an immediate success. For the first time, genuine Russian music was heard on the operatic stage.

2. "The Stone Guest"?

Answer: Alexander Dargomyzhsky

He was a contemporary of Glinka, and Glinka's success with "A Life for the Tzar" inspired Dargomyzhsky to try opera.

3. "Prince Igor"?

Answer: Alexander Borodin

This opera was also unfinished at the time of his death. Rimsky-Korsakov and one of his students, Alexander Glazunov, finished it.

4. "Boris Godunov"?

Answer: Modest Mussorgsky

He captured the soul of the Russian people in "Boris Godonov", inventing a melodic dialogue based on the speech sounds in Russian church music and folk songs.

5. "Eugene Onegin"?

Answer: Peter Tchaikovsky

Set in the opulent Russian Empire, the opera tells the story of a dashing but jaded gentleman.

6. "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"?

Answer: Dmitry Shostakovich

This work had been intended as the first of four operas on Russian women, but it was considered more chaos than music by Stalin.

7. "Sadko"?

Answer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov builds an opera from themes of his purely instrumental tone poem of the same name, written thirty years earlier.

8. "Kovanschina"?

Answer: Modest Mussorgsky

You should hear this opera in the original Russian whenever possible for an experience of the spirit that was to change Russian music in the next century.

9. "Ruslan and Ludmilla"?

Answer: Mikhail Glinka

His second opera (1842) was founded on the epic poem of Pushkin.

10. "The Captive of the Caucasus"?

Answer: Cesar Cui

Despite his nationalist sentiments, Cui's ten operas show as much French character as they do Russian.

11. "The Queen of Spades"?

Answer: Peter Tchaikovsky

Although at first Tchaikovsky showed little interest in the subject, his imagination was caught by Pushkin's novella even before the libretto was finally his.

12. "War and Peace"?

Answer: Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev, who wrote the libretto together with his wife, Mira Mendelssohn, managed to condense the essential elements of the huge novel into four and a half hours.

13. "Mozart and Salieri"?

Answer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

A favourite with Russian audiences, based on the play by Alexander Pushkin.

14. "Raphael"?

Answer: Anton Arensky

This opera was composed in 1894 on the occasion of the First Congress of Russian Artists, but was less successful than its predecessor "Son na Volge".

15. "Feast in the Time of Plague"?

Answer: Cesar Cui

An opera based on Pushkin, which is one of the Little Tragedies of Pushkin along with "The Covetous Knight".

16. "Mavra"?

Answer: Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky wrote his comic opera "Mavra" in 1922, and the premiere took place at the Paris Opera. The story is based on Aleksandr Pushkin's "House in Kolomna".

17. "Mateo Falcone"?

Answer: Cesar Cui

gebaseerd op de novelle van de Franse novelist en historicus Prosper Merim�e (1803 - 1870).

18. "The Snow Maiden"?

Answer: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Based on a work by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky with a libretto by the composer, Rimsky-Korsakov considered the four-act opera to be one of his best compositions.

19. "Esmeralda"?

Answer: Alexander Dargomyzhsky

After his first compositions he turned his thoughts more seriously toward composition, and in 1839 he completed his first opera, Esmeralda.

20. "Aleko"?

Answer: Sergei Rachmaninov

Aleko premiered at the Bolshoi on April 27, 1893, and began as a composition assignment.

Source: Author aiken

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