Giuseppe Verdi Trivia

1. What is Aida's royal status?

From Quiz Easy peasy "Aida" quiz

Answer: An Ethiopian princess

She is an Ethiopian princess as her father, Amonasro, is the King of Ethiopia. Their country is at war with Egypt.

From Quiz Easy Peasy "Il Trovatore"

Answer: She allegedly practiced witchcraft.

While the woman was being burned for witchcraft, she tells her daughter, Azucena, to avenge her death. For years, Azucena is tormented by watching her mother die. To avenge her mother, she kidnaps the Count's younger son with the intent of burning him to death. Unfortunately, she burns her own son by mistake and ends up raising the boy known as Manrico.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Forza del Destino"

Answer: Russia

"Forza" premiered in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Theater on November 10, 1862. In 1861, while attending a session of the Italian parliament in Turin, Verdi signed a contract to write an opera for the theater's winter season the following year. In anticipation of their sojourn to Russia for the opera's premiere, Verdi's wife Giuseppina ordered wine, pasta, salami, and Italian cheeses to be sent ahead to their hotel in St. Petersburg. In case you were wondering, the other five Verdi operas that premiered elsewhere were "Jerusalem" (actually a reworking of "I Lombardi" in a French translation), "Les Vepres Siciliennes", and "Don Carlos", all of which premiered in Paris, "I Masnadieri", which premiered in England with Jenny Lind, and of course "Aida", which premiered in Cairo, Egypt.

From Quiz Viva Verdi!

Answer: Un Giorno di Regno

It's a shame that Verdi waited until the end of his life to compose another comedy; "Un Giorno di Regno", while hardly a masterpiece, exhibits an engaging and playful sense of fun.

From Quiz Verdi's "Rigoletto"

Answer: Court Jester

Rigoletto serves as jester in the court of the womanizing Duke of Mantua.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Traviata"

Answer: Valery

Violetta Valery is a young lady from Paris who is very well known for her beauty and her careless way of life.

From Quiz Verdi's Operas

Answer: Ethiopians

It is incorrect that the opera was written for the opening of the Suez Canal, but it is a true fact that the work was ordered by the Egyptian authorities as a kind of 'national opera'.

From Quiz Easy Peasy "Il Trovatore"

Answer: Her lover Manrico

It was nighttime and she couldn't tell whether or not he was Manrico.

From Quiz Viva Verdi!

Answer: Manrico

One of Verdi's more rigorous tenor roles, Manrico's famous cabaletta "Di Quella Pira" did not contain the famous high C now demanded of any mortal foolish enough to try it.

From Quiz Verdi's "Rigoletto"

Answer: Countess Ceprano

While the Duke is flirting, Rigoletto mocks Ceprano making him even more angry. Ceprano then takes an active role in the events that follow.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Traviata"

Answer: Germont

Young Alfredo Germont has fallen in love with Violetta the moment he first met her.

From Quiz Verdi's Operas

Answer: the Egyptian general Radames and Aida a foreign princess

Aida and Radames are in love. Radames must attack the country his beloved is from. His opponent is her father. Amneris suspects that Aida is in love with Radames but thinks and hopes that he prefers her. When Radames unwittingly betrays some military secrets to Aida and her father, Amneris intervenes.

From Quiz Joe Green's Works

Answer: Macbeth

The mention of the Scottish play was a major hint. Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" is commonly called by this nickname, because superstitious people in the theatrical world believe the name of this play invokes bad luck, perhaps because the witches have an important part in the play. They prophesy what is about to come (see for example the aria "Tre volte miagole" - translated "Thrice the cat meows in lust // thrice the owl hoots and mourns // thrice the porcupine howls at the wind.") "Patria oppressa! Il dolce nome // No, di madre aver non puoi." The choir sings this aria at the beginning of the final act, when the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff has to start. Bellini and Prokofiev, to name only those two, composed an opera "Romeo i Giulietta". Ambroise Thomas was inspired by "Hamlet". Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldi composed "A Midsummer Night's Dream", with the famous wedding march.

From Quiz Easy peasy "Aida" quiz

Answer: She tricks her.

She tricks her into believing that Radames was killed in battle to get her reaction.

From Quiz Easy Peasy "Il Trovatore"

Answer: A voice from the Heavens told him not to.

Azucena is disappointed in her "son" Manrico when she finds out that he didn't kill di Luna when he should have. She tells him to do so the next time they are fighting. And all of this is going on while Manrico was trying to figure out who his real mother is when Azucena informs him that she mistakenly burned her own (biological) son to death.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Forza del Destino"

Answer: Francesco Maria Piave

Piave had previously collaborated with Verdi on "Ernani", "I Due Foscari", "Macbeth", "Il Corsaro", "Stiffelio/Aroldo", "Rigoletto", "La Traviata", and "Simon Boccanegra". "Forza" would be their last collaboration; five years after the opera's premiere, Piave suffered a paralytic stroke and remained completely disabled for the next eight years until his death in 1874. During this period, Verdi was generous in his financial support of his old colleague and his family.

From Quiz Aida

Answer: Soldier

We meet Radames in the very first scene and almost immediately he sings one of the most beautiful, yet difficult, tenor arias in opera, "Celeste Aida." It doesn't seem fair that the tenor gets his big number right at the beginning. Everyone else gets to warm up a bit.

From Quiz Viva Verdi!

Answer: Sweden

Verdi's theme of the assasination of a king was deemed unacceptable, so the action was switched to colonial America, where the king was demoted to a humble count. Most productions today, however, switch the setting back to the original Sweden.

From Quiz Verdi's "Rigoletto"

Answer: Monterone

Monterone curses the Duke, which earns him the death penalty. He also puts a father's curse on Rigoletto, which haunts him through the entire opera.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Traviata"

Answer: "Sempre libera"

"Forever free" - Violetta reflects on her life and decides not to give up her freedom for the love of this young man... at least not at once. But she likes him. "Caro nome" is Gilda's aria, "La donna è mobile" might be the most popular piece by Verdi (both arias from "Rigoletto"). "Dalla sua pace" isn't even from a Verdi opera - it's Don Ottavio's aria from Mozart's "Don Giovanni".

From Quiz Verdi's Operas

Answer: Aida and Radames are buried alive

When Radames is arrested and refuses to become Amneris' lover, his fate is sealed. He is put to death. Aida who had escaped already, returns and chooses to enter of her free will the tomb where Radames is to die. First performance was at Cairo, 24 December 1871.

From Quiz Joe Green's Works

Answer: The Duke of Mantua

"La donna è mobile // qual pium' al vento // muta d'accento // e di pensier'." When you've heard this merry tune, it nests itself in your mind as an interesting earworm. Wikipedia lists two translations into English (a literal one and a poetic one), but I've combined the two in order to fit even better the rhythm of this aria. "Rigoletto" is the opera from 1851 that contains this jingle, but the title character doesn't sing this very tune. The title character is the jester at the court of the Duke of Mantua, a true womanizer. When the Duke gets inamorato by Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter, he tries at first to win her confidence posing as a poor student. (See the aria "Gualtiere Maldi, caro nome".) But this ruse fails, and so the Duke has Gilda abducted from her room in order to rape her. Rigoletto swears to avenge his daughter's honour, and hires the assassin Sparafucile. Alas, Sparafucile kills the wrong person - as he brings to Rigoletto a bag with the body of his victim, Rigoletto hears the Duke singing "La donna è mobile" in the background...

From Quiz Easy peasy "Aida" quiz

Answer: "Celeste Aida."

He sings a sweet love song about his lover, Aida called "Celeste Aida" or "Heavenly Aida." "Fidelio" is the name of Beethoven's only opera. "Nessun Dorma" is an aria from "Turandot" and "Vesti la giubba" is an aria from "I Pagliacci."

From Quiz Easy Peasy "Il Trovatore"

Answer: She prepares to take vows to be a nun.

Upon hearing this, both Manrico and Count di Luna stop this from happening but Manrico manages to whisk Leanora away before di Luna could get to her.

From Quiz Verdi's "Falstaff"

Answer: Antonio Salieri

Salieri's "Falstaff" was one of his less successful operas, having recieved only 26 performances at the court theatre; however it is not without considerable interest. The composer cleverly uses certain antiquated styles for comedic effect; Mrs. Slender's "Vendetta, si, vendetta!" and Ford's "Furie che m'agitate" cleverly mimic the conventions of the opera seria "rage" arias (in much the same way that Mozart did in Donna Elvira's "Ah fuggi il traditor!" in "Don Giovanni"). Particularly charming is the aria "O! Die manner kenn ich schonn" sung by Mrs. Ford in a comic mixture of German and Italian. This comes from an un-Shakespearean scene in which she flirts with Falstaff whilst disguised as a German fraulein. Beethoven wrote a series of variations on the duet "La stessa, la stessissima" from this opera.

From Quiz Viva Verdi!

Answer: Rigoletto

Next to "Don Giovanni", the Duke is the most celebrated libertine in all opera. Even though he's a rat, how can you really hate someone who sings such great music as "La Donna e Mobile"?

From Quiz Verdi's "Rigoletto"

Answer: Hit man

Sparafucile offers to "remove" an competition that Rigoletto may have for the woman he lives with. Sparafucile does not know that the woman in the house is Rigoletto's daughter.

From Quiz Verdi's "La Traviata"

Answer: Annina

Annina is very faithful and tries to help Violetta wherever she can.

From Quiz Verdi's Operas

Answer: the Babylonians

'Nabucco' is short for Nebuchadnezzar, the famous Biblical King of the Babylonians. The Jews have been deported to Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar is also spelled Nabuchodonosor.

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