8. The opera singer fell ill with which condition?
From Quiz Call the Copse
Answer:
Malaria
Explanation for this pun just in case you didn't understand it: "Mal" is a prefix meaning bad - and a solo for an opera singer is known as an aria. Together you have Mal-aria, a mosquito borne illness that, if serious enough, can cause death. Symptoms include fever, nausea, vomiting, headaches, seizures sometimes, coma and death. Death, you could say, is the ultimate symptom.
Opera singers are highly trained musicians who spend years doing endless hours of scales every day, learning new songs, refreshing themselves with others, practising the right emotions to express for the part, learning various language required for the different roles they play, and backing all that up with years of study of musical knowledge. This includes knowing all the different instruments in an orchestra, their range, their keys, their history, being able to read all forms of music and know all the different music directions, know how to transpose and play music as well as singing it, knowing all the great composers and their works, and a hundred other skills. But every single second is worth it when, stepping out onto that stage and starting to sing, you watch an audience becoming completely absorbed in the musical tales written by all the great composers of the world you are singing for them. Holding that audience in the palm of your hand, you can make them laugh - or cry - fall completely in love with your portrayed character - or long to see you receiving your just desserts. You become heroine, villain, lover, wife, narrator and are lifted to another plane of existence.
When I die, I want "Once I sang" as my epitaph.