Sleepless at the Opera Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nero

Poppea was the mistress of Nero, for whom he divorced his wife Octavia, to whom he had been married for political reasons. Monteverdi's opera recounts their notorious love affair which culminates, as the title suggests, in the coronation of Poppea as empress. Along the way, Nero's venerable teacher Seneca is sentenced to death by hemlock (a'la Socrates) for opposing his pupil's desires, and the vengeful Octavia draws the reluctant Ottone into an unsuccesful plot to murder Poppea in order to secure her own position.

In the end, Octavia, Ottone, and Poppea's handmaid, Drusilla (who is in love with Ottone, and to whom he turns for sympathy after Poppea's betrayal) are exiled for their part in this plot, and Nero is able to make Poppea his queen.

The opera ends with her coronation, which is followed by the duet "Pur Te Miro", upon which the curtain closes (Monteverdi was already breaking with tradition by having this extremely intimate and tender duet bring the opera to a close, rather than a triumphant choral finale). One wonders if Monteverdi was aware of the irony implicit in the conclusion of the opera; Nero would eventually kill Poppea by brutally kicking her in the stomach during pregnancy, thus bringing their "love story" to a brutal conclusion.

Answer: Semele

"Semele" recounts the tragic love of the mortal Semele for Jupiter, the god of thunder. In the second scene of Act II, Semele, awakening from her romantic reveries, calls upon sleep, to "...again deceive me; to my arms restore my wandering love". Semele's palace, in which she is kept by Jupiter, is guarded by two ever-wakeful dragons, which prevents the vengeful Juno from taking revenge on her rival. Juno calls upon Somnus, the god of sleep, and his attendant Morpheus to provide Jupiter with such an erotic dream of Semele that he will subsequently be unable to refuse any wish she may ask him to grant. She also obtains the rod of Somnus, which enables her to subdue the dragons guarding Semele's palace. She convinces Semele to ask Jupiter to come to her, not in his mortal form, but in his full glory as the god of Thunder. Jupiter is obliged to fulfill her request, which inevitably results in her fiery death. From her ashes, however, rises their son, the god Bacchus.

Semele's aria "Oh Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave Me?" is one of the best-known arias from the oratorio, along with Jupiter's "Where E'er You Walk". The great tenor John McCormack was known for his performances of both of these arias, both of which he also recorded. His flawless trill in the opening phrase of "Oh Sleep" is counted as an example of his flawless technique, along with his celebrated octave leap in "Care Selve" (from Handel's "Atalanta- also an aria written for soprano) and his amazing single-breath phrase in "Il Mio Tesoro", from Mozart's "Don Giovanni".

Answer: Don Giovanni

The servant is, of course, Leporello, who is keeping a lonely vigil outside the home of Don Giovanni's latest love interest, Donna Anna. Leporello complains that, while his master lies in the arms of a beautiful woman, he must freeze outside, all alone, keeping watch. Leporello will spend another sleepless night in the following act, when Giovanni persuades him to woo the jilted Donna Elvira in his place. Leporello nearly ends up getting killed when the vengeful Masetto, Zerlina, Donna Anna, and Don Ottavio come upon him and mistake him for his master.

He ends up fleeing from them and catching up with his errant master in a graveyard, where they make the acquaintance of the statue of the murdered Commendatore (Donna Anna's father)who, as it happens, has a great deal to say to them.

Answer: La Sonnambula

Amina, the innocent young heroine of "La Sonnambula", is engaged to the handsome Elvino, much to the chagrin of the scheming Lisa, the village innkeeper, who is in love with Elvino herself. Unbeknownst to everyone, Amina suffers from sonnambulism (sleepwalking); she has been observed thus by some villagers, who mistook her for a phantom. Shortly before the wedding, Amina has a sleepwalking episode which leads her to Lisa's inn - specifically to the bedroom of a visiting dignitary, Count Rodolfo. The malicious Lisa immediately alerts Elvino, who arrives at the inn to find his betrothed in the Count's room in the middle of the night. Enraged, he breaks their engagement, devastating the guiltless Amina. Fortunately for the young lovers, the count has pieced things together and realizes that Amina is the "phantom" of whom the villagers are so afraid. Promising to produce proof of Amina's innocence, the Count assembles the villagers at night to witness the "apparition", which turns out to be the sleepwalking Amina, who is heard to bemoan her lost love. The truth is revealed, and upon her return to wakefulness, Elvino asks her forgiveness, and her hand in marriage.

"La Sonnambula" is saddled with one of the more preposterous plots in the operatic repertoire, for which the music is not always able to compensate. There are, however, moments of great lyric beauty, of which Bellini was the master. These include Amina's opening aria "Come Per Me Sereno", the duets "Son Geloso del Zeffiro" and "Prendi, L'Anel Ti Dono", Count Rodolfo's aria "Vi Ravviso", Amina's celebrated sleepwalking aria "Ah Non Credea Mirarti" and her joyous final aria "Ah Non Giunge".

Answer: Gaetano Donizetti

The plot of "Il Campanello" is fueled by the determination of Enrico, Serafina's former suitor, to prevent the consummation of her marriage to the much older (and wealthier) Don Annibale Pistacchio. By law, a marriage that was not consummated on the wedding night was invalid; also by law, apothecaries (who, at that time, were also physicians) were required to answer their shop bell, no matter the hour. Taking advantage of both of these laws, the crafty Enrico keeps the unhappy Annibale up all night, adopting various disguises and requesting various medications. In the end, Annibale is kept from his marriage bed until dawn, and Serafina, realizing that she really loves Enrico, is able to legally accept his proposal of marriage.

Written in 1838, "Il Campanello" never achieved the popularity of some of Donizetti's other comic operas, though it possesses some charming music. In many respects the plot is similar to the much better-known "Don Pasquale", written six years later, which also has an elderly man marrying a much younger woman, with disastrous (and comic) results. The plot also closely resembles that of Haydn's 1768 opera "Lo Speziale", which also has an elderly apothecary married to a young wife; in this case, there are not one, but two younger rivals for the young lady's hand.

Answer: Leonie Rysanek

Each of these ladies sang the role of Lady Macbeth at some point in her career, but it was Czech soprano Leonie Rysanek who had the thankless task of replacing the much-anticipated Maria Callas in 1959. Callas had been engaged to sing the role in the same season with Verdi's "La Traviata", a much lighter role vocally. She stated to general manager Rudolf Bing her objection to singing these two roles in such close proximity, arguing that "...my voice is not like an elevator, going up and down." The impasse could not be resolved and, in a headline-making decision, Bing terminated her contract, replacing her with Rysanek.

On opening night, at Rysanek's first entrance, a voice in the audience cried out "Brava Callas!" In his biography "5000 Nights at the Opera", Bing made the claim that he had planted the heckler in the audience in the hopes that it would elicit sympathy for Rysanek. Whether this is true or not, Rysanek proved herself a formidable singing actress in her own right, and the performance was a huge success. She went on to forge a highly distinguished career, specializing in the Strauss and Puccini repertoire, along with several Wagnerian roles, some of the heavier Verdi ones, and the role of Leonora in Beethoven's "Fidelio". Later in life, she made a second career as a mezzo, giving memorable performances as Ortrud in "Lohengrin", Klytemnestra in "Elektra", and Herodias in "Salome". In the operas of her countryman Leos Janacek she gave what many feel were the definitive performances of Kostelnicka in "Jenufa" and Kabanicha in "Katya Kabanova". Her final performances were in the role of the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky's "Pique Dame" at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996, at which time she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She died in 1998 at age 71.

Answer: Don Carlos

"Ella Giammai M'Amo" is sung by Philip II of Spain, father of the title character. Philip is married to Elizabeth de Valois, who had originally been engaged to Don Carlos. When the decision was made that she should instead marry Philip, Elizabeth determined that the good of her country should come before her personal needs, and submitted to the marriage out of duty rather than love. Although the anguished young lovers are the primary focus of sympathy in this opera, the aging composer here gives the unloved sovereign a chance to reveal his vulnerability. Beset with problems of state and with even more wrenching personal crises, Philip realizes with a start that the light in his room comes not from his candle, which has gone out, but from the rising sun; the night is now spent. Sadly, he reflects that the only true slumber he will ever know will be that of the grave.

The lengthy orchestral introduction to this aria, which also serves as the accompaniment to the opening recitative, is one of the finest things Verdi ever wrote. Anyone who has spent a sleepless, anxiety-filled evening (as, no doubt, the composer himself did on more that one occasion) will find this music uncannily apt.

Answer: Georges Bizet

Best known for his opera "Carmen", Bizet's incidental music for Daudet's 1872 play were made into two concert suites, which have been favorite orchestral concert pieces for many years. To give the score the proper local color, Bizet made use of traditional melodies from Provence, most notably the stately "Marche des Rois" ("March of the Kings"). Daudet's story concerns the trials of Frederic, a young man from Provence, who falls desperately in love with a mysterious woman from Arles whom, as he discovers to his grief, is not exclusively in love with him. It is suggested that Frederic suffers from melancholia, or what today would be called "clinical depression", and he ultimately ends his torment by throwing himself from the roof of his home. A notable feature of both story and play (also Cilea's opera) is that the faithless title character is never seen, nor even referred to by name.

I have never seen or heard Cilea's opera in its entirety, and it is rarely performed. The composer is best known for his 1902 opera "Adriana Lecouvrer", a favorite of many an opera diva (though not, apparently, of opera house managers). I have never cared for "Adriana", but I would be very interested in hearing "L'Arlesiana", based on the few excerpts I have heard. These include the haunting "Lament" mentioned above, the baritone's "Come Due Tizzi Accesi" (memorably recorded by Tito Gobbi), and the mother's desperate aria "Esser Madre e'un Inferno", which translates literally as "To be a mother is Hell". This last was recorded in 1935 by Claudia Muzio, whose searing rendition, ending with an anguished cry, is one of the more wrenching performances captured on disc.

Answer: Elektra

The queen is, of course, Klytemnestra, who has had no rest from her constant nightmares regarding the murder of her husband Agamemnon and the promised retribution by her son, Orest (Orestes). Her servants are about to offer a sacrifice to placate the gods when Klytemnestra appears, forced by her misery to seek advice from her hated, vengeful daughter Elektra. Elektra, who has lived for the day when her brother Orest will avenge their father's murder, takes great pleasure in raising her mother's hopes by suggesting a human sacrifice, only to turn them into horror when she reveals that the sacrificial victim will be herself, slain by the axe of Orest. Klytemnestra's nightmares are fulfilled not long afterward when Orest, having sent a false report of his death to catch his victims off guard, returns to carry out his dreaded revenge.

Answer: Turandot

The recently deceased Luciano Pavarotti was very much on my mind as I created this quiz. Although he certainly was not the first tenor to essay Calaf's great aria "Nessun Dorma", nor arguably even the greatest, nonetheless his rendition seems to have popularized it in a way that no other tenor's performance ever did. The aria comes near the beginning of the opera's final act, when the royal guards proclaim to the citizens of Peking that no one in the city may sleep until the name of the Princess' mysterious suitor is discovered. Confident that his identity will never be revealed, Calaf triumphantly awaits the dawn, when the beautiful Turandot will be his. The last, and arguably the best-known tenor aria that Puccini wrote, "Nessun Dorma" has been described by some as one of the greatest melodies written in the twentieth century.

Hope you've enjoyed the quiz. And now to sleep. Perchance to dream? Ah, there's another quiz!