Che Facevano? Chi Lo Sa? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Antonio Carluccio

Carluccio was born in 1937 near Salerno (Campania, south Italy). In 1958 he moved to Vienna to study languages, and soon after his studies he started a wine shop in Hamburg, Germany. In 1975 he moved to London, where he took over a restaurant in Covent Garden. His first television programme dates from 1983, while he had his own series "Antonio Carluccio's Italian Feasts" in 1996. Another famous series is "Two Greedy Italians" (2011) with his colleague, Gennaro Contaldo. Carluccio favoured the traditional recipes of rural Italy, even if they had to stew for several hours. His motto was "minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour".

De Laurentiis was born in Rome in 1970. She got her own show "Everyday Italian" on the Food Network in 2003, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2008.
D'Acampo was born in 1976 in a little village near Naples. His best known TV work is "Let's Do Lunch", a series that ran from 2011 until 2014. Locatelli was born in 1963 in a small town in Lombardy. In 1995 he started a restaurant in London, and in 2002 he presented "Pure Italian" on the UK Food Channel.

Answer: Sophia Loren

The correct answer is Sophia Loren, born in 1934 as Sofia Scicolone. She started her acting career in 1950 with various minor roles (under her real name or the alias Sofia Lazzaro). Her role as Lygia's slave in "Quo Vadis" was arguably the first in which she became known to the public outside Italy. In 1953 she adopted her final stage name Sophia Loren, and she obtained the title role in Fracassi's movie version of the opera "Aida". But her songs were dubbed by the trained soprano Renata Tebaldi. In December 1960 premiered "La Ciociara", a movie directed by Vitorio de Sica in which Cesira (role by Loren), a Roman widow, flees for the war together with her twelve year old daughter. En route, Cesira draws the (amorous) attention of Michele (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo). Alas, Michele is captured by the Germans and later executed, and Cesira and her daughter are harrrassed by a group of allied soldiers. Loren's best known movies include "Ieri, Oggi e Domani" (1963) and "Una Giornata Particulare" (1977), both with Marcello Mastroianni, and "Grumpier Old Men" (1995, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau).

Asia Argento (born 1975) has played major roles in "xXx" (2002) and in "Marie-Antoinette" (2006). Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was born in 1964. She starred in "Munich" (2005) and "La pazza gioia" (2016). Anna Magnani (1908-1973) is best known for her role in "Roma, Citta Aperta" (1945).

Answer: Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino (1895 -1926) was born in Castalleneta, a small village in Puglia. I suspect the clerk registering his birth had plenty of work: Valentino's full name was Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella. Of course, Rudolph chose for a shorter name when he started his professional career. Valentino moved to the USA in 1913 and played several "villain" roles between 1914 and 1921. His first box office hit was "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1921), soon followed by "The Sheik" (1921). In this latter movie he plays the role of an Arabic chieftain (sheik Ahmed) who falls in love with a British adventuress (Lady Diana Mayo - played by Agnes Ayres). After the sheik kidnaps Lady Diana, some thugs do the same and the sheik has to come to her rescue. In the sequel "The son of the sheik" (1926) Valentino plays a dual role: the sheik's son, but also the aging sheik, Ahmed.

Tognazzi (1922-1990) is best known for his roles in the French movies "La cage aux folles" (1978) and "La grande bouffe" (1973).In "La grande bouffe" his character is a restaurant owner, in the other movie he plays the gay owner of a nightclub. Franco Nero (born 1941 as Francesco Sparanero) broke through as the title character in the western "Django" (1966). Roberto Benigni (born 1952) made his fame with "La vita è bella" (1997), in which he played an overconfident Jewish owner of a book shop, when he is sent to the concentration camps.

Answer: Federico Fellini

"La dolce vita" is best remembered for two reasons: the first use of the word "paparazzo" for an overzealous news photographer and the iconic scene where Anita Ekberg dances barefoot in the Fontana de Trevi. Fellini (1920-1993) was one of the most famous Italian movie directors. Besides "La dolce vita" he also directed movies such as "La strada" (1954), "8 ½"(1963), "Satyricon" (1969), "Amarcord" (1973) and "Ginger e Fred" (1986). His style mixed realism with baroque fantasies.

Pasolini (1922-1975) was a poet and movie director. His most important movies are "Accatone" (1961), "Il vangelo secondo Matteo" (1964) and "Salo" (1975).
Rossellini (1906-1977) directed movies such as "Roma, citta aperta" (1945).
Bertolucci (born 1941) has made fame with movies such as "Last Tango in Paris" (1972) and "The Last Emperor" (1987).

Answer: Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti

Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti (Three Happy Dead Boys) is the only trio among these bands. They come from Pordenone (north of Venice). Toffolo is the lead singer who accompanies himself on guitar. Molteni plays bass guitar, and Masseroni drums. They started their career with the single "Mondo Naif". Some of their projects include "Mostri e normali" ("Monsters and Normals") published in 1999, "Il sogno del gorilla bianco" (2004, "The Dream of the White Gorilla") and "Nel giardino dei fantasmi" ("In the Garden of Ghosts", 2012).

Infernal Poetry was an Italian death metal band active between 1996 and 2014. It had five members, and one of their productions was "Nervous System Failure" (2009). Murder Void is a metalcore band founded in Milan in 2012 with four members (sometimes supplemented by a guest player). I Ratti della Sabina ("the rats of Sabine") was a folk rock group founded in 1996 in Rieti (northeast of Rome). It started with eight members, but when Roberto Billi started a solo career in 2010, the remaining members took a new name: Area765.

Answer: La solitudine

Laura Pausini was born in 1974 in Faenza. She recorded a first album already in 1987, but her breakthrough came in 1993. In that year she sang "La solitudine" ("Loneliness") at the San Remo Music Festival, and after winning the competition she included this song on her first professional studio album.

"Le cose che vivi" ("The Things That You Live") was the title track for her third studio album published in 1996, the first album that appeared simultaneously in Italian and in Spanish - a practice which Laura continues since then. "Un'emergenza d'amore" ("An Emergency of Love") was a single included in Pausini's fourth studio album, titled "La mia riposta" ("My Answer") and published in 1998. "Limpido" ("Clean") appeared in 2013 on the album "20-The Greatest Hits". Pausini recorded a solo version and a duet with Kylie Minogue of this song.

Answer: Zucchero

Zucchero is the artist's name for Adelmo Fornaciari, a singer-songwriter born in Rocococesi (region of Reggio Emilia) in 1955. Zucchero sang for several smaller bands in the seventies, before starting a solo career as singer-songwriter.
His first major success was "Senza una donna", which (in the duet version of 1991) peaked at number 1 in the Italian, Belgian, Norwegian and Swedish single charts (with a second position in France and Germany and fourth in the UK).
Eros Ramazzotti has published many songs, of which I'll mention here "Se bastazze una canzone" ("If One Song Could Be Enough").

Cutugno won the Eurovison Song Festival 1990 with "Insieme: 1992" ("Together: 1992"). Modugno was an another Eurovision Song Festival winner. His song "Nel blu dipinto di blu", with the alternative title "Volare", won the edition 1958. For those of you who don't speak Italian, here are the titles as I would translate them: "Into the Blue Shaded With Blue" - alternative title "Flying".

Answer: Arturo Toscanini

"I Pagliacci" is an opera by Ruggiero Leoncavallo that had its world premiere in 1892. "La Bohème", one of the masterpieces by Giacomo Puccini, premiered in 1896. Arturo Toscanini was born in Parma in 1867. He studied the cello and joined an opera company on tour to South America. There he started his conducting career in June 1886 in a truly unexpected turn of fate. As the result of the conflict between the appointed conductor and the choir, the opera of Rio de Janeiro fired the appointed conductor only some minutes before the performance of "Aida" by Verdi. But where did they have to look for a replacement? The singers proposed Toscanini as conductor, and he did marvellously well. Toscanini became the principal conductor at La Scala in Milan (1898-1908) and also conducted at the Metropolitan in New York (1908-1919). Toscanini died in 1957, and his tomb bears the remark he made during the world premiere of "Turandot" (1926): "Qui finisce l'opera, perche a questo punt oil maestro e morto" ("Here ends the opera, for at this point the Maestro died").

Claudio Abbado (1933-2014) was the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmoniker from 1989 until 2002. Fabio Luisi (born 1959) was the main guest conductor at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 2010 to 2011 and principal conductor until 2017. Alberto Zedda (1928-2017) was not only a conductor, but worked also as musicologist, specialized in the works of Gioacchino Rossini.

Answer: Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi (1922-2004) and Maria Callas (1923-1977) were arguably the most successful sopranos of the fifties. In 1951 they were booked together for a recital in Rio de Janeiro, and Renata was implored for two encores, while Callas did none. That would be the start of an alleged grudge, in which both shot verbal quips at each other. Tebaldi for instance declared "I have what Callas doesn't have: a heart", and Callas was quoted in time as "Comparing Callas to Tebaldi is as comparing champagne to cognac. No, to Coca-cola". Callas and Tebaldi played mostly different roles. One of the few roles they both did, was the title role in "Tosca" by Puccini.

Laura Giordano (born 1979) is a lyric soprano, specialized in works by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Giuditta Grisi (1805-1840) was a mezzo-soprano specialized in works by Rossini. Cecilia Bartoli (born 1966) is best known for her roles in operas by Mozart and Rossini. She is schooled as a mezzo-soprano, but can also interpret coloratura soprano roles.

Answer: Luciano Pavarotti

I first heard this aria on the concerto the Three Tenors gave in Rome at the eve of the final to the World Cup Soccer in 1990. Pavarotti (1935-2007) gave a splendid performance with "O Sole Mio" and especially "Nessun Dorma", the aria which Pavarotii, Carreras and Domingo reprised for the first encore.
When I later heard another Italian tenor singing "Nessun Dorma" I made the remark the other one sang it about 50 kg too light...

Gigli (1890-1957), Merli (1887-1976) and Corelli (1921-2003, retired in 1975) have also rendered an impressive version of "Nessun Dorma". You may find these performances on Youtube.