Operatic Ancient History - Non-Roman Quiz

Answer: Joseph en Egypte

The French composer Etienne Méhul (1763-1817) wrote about 35 operas, of which "Joseph en Egypte" is the only one that is still sometimes performed in its entirety.

Joseph was one of Jacob's sons, sold by his brothers. He came to Egypt as a slave, but worked his way up to viceroy. (Is this the "Egyptian dream"?) He explained the pharaoh's dreams about seven fat cows followed by seven skinny cows to him as follows: Egypt will know seven years of prosperity and then seven years of failed harvests.

I've made up the other titles. "Le Cauchemar du Pharaon" means "Pharaoh's Nightmare", "Les Vaches Maigres" should be translated as "The Skinny Cows" and "Le Sort d'un Esclave" means "A Slave's Lot". All these titles would cover only part of the story.

Answer: Exodus

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer who completed thirty-nine operas in nineteen years. Some of his best known operas are "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville") and "Guillaume Tell". His opera "Mose in Egitto" relates the book of Exodus: the departure of the Jewish people in search for the Promised Land. Cecil B. De Mille (1881-1959) told the same story in the movie "The Ten Commandments". Genesis starts with the Creation. It tells also the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah's Ark.

The last book in the Bible is the Revelation (also known as the Apocalypse). It deals with the Judgment Day.

The bible book Acts tells us some events during the first years after Christ's death and resurrection: the Arrival of the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter performing his first miracles, Saint Paul's conversion, and the first prosecutions.

I haven't found any operas based upon the book Acts. Among the composers who named an opera after Adam and Eve, we find Carl Binder (1816-1860), Meingosus Gaelle (1752-1816) and Nikos Chatzeapostolou (1884-1941). The best known opera about Noah's ark is the one composed by Jacques Fromental Elie Halévy (1799-1862), composition completed by Georges Bizet (1838-1875). As far as I've found, only Milko Kelemen (born 1924) has ventured an opera based upon the book of Revelation.

Answer: David

Milhaud (1892-1974) was a French composer. He wrote at least twelve operas.

Saul was the first king of Israel between about 1040 BC and 1012 BC. His three sons died in battle against the Philistines and he committed suicide (according to some sources - others state that he fell in the same battle).

David was the second king of Israel, from 1012 BC till 972 BC. He defeated the Philistine giant Goliath with his sling. This king was frequently depicted by Renaissance painters and sculptors. Remember the statues by Michelangelo (1475-1564), Donatello (1386-1466) and Bernini (1598-1680). Dramatic incidents in his life include the rebellion of his son Absalom, killed by one of David's generals.
Solomon, the third king, ruled Israel from 972 BC till 932 BC. When God wanted to bestow a great favour on him, Solomon chose wisdom in order to guide his people and to speak justice. Although he is considered the wisest king of Israel, he couldn't avoid losing territory.

Ezekiel was not a king, but one of the important prophets. He was one of the Babylonian exiles in 597 BC. The bible contains a book named after him.

Answer: The Queen of Sheba

Karl Goldmark (1830-1915) was a Hungarian composer living in Vienna. He left us seven operas, two symphonies, four overtures, and some other compositions.
King Solomon didn't know the Duchess of Windsor, a title created in the 20th Century.

King Solomon ruled Israel from 972 BC till 932 BC. There is no historical evidence that proves contact between ancient Jewish people (or other people from the Middle East) with the Chinese in this era. The earliest proven contacts between China and the Middle East date from about 200 BC. The first contact between Zulu people and the Middle East will probably have been established by the Nubians, a people that started its interest for Central and Southern Africa around 270 BC.

The Queen of Sheba resided in the region that now is known by the name of Yemen. Nowadays this region doesn't have any diamond mines. As the Zulu tribe had its first king in 1816 AD, there have been no Zulu princesses in King Solomon's time.

Answer: Saffo

Pacini was an Italian composer who lived from 1796 till 1867. He wrote at least 74 operas.

Sappho was a Greek poetess living in Lesbos around 600 BC. She attracted a literary circle of admiring young women. As she also rejected the love of the beautiful young man Alcaeus (about 620 BC - 580 BC), this led to the notion "Lesbian love", named after the island on which she lived. The theory that Sappho was lesbian is purely conjecture.

Answer: Nabucco

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) is probably the best known Italian opera composer and one of my favourites. He left us 26 operas (not counting revised editions).

The opera "Nabucco" was named after the Babylonian king Nabuchodonosor. This is his Italian name, in English he is called Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon from 605 BC until 562 BC. He destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC and led the Jews into exile. Verdi's opera describes how the Jews long to return home. The chorus states that their spirits stay free, although their bodies are in exile.
Another song expressing the same idea was that sung by some Jews in the German concentration camps during World War II: "Die Gedanken sind frei" ("Ideas are free"). This German folk song was edited by August Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874), the composer of the German national anthem, and by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). For the lyrics, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei .

Answer: Holofernes

Von Reznicek (1860-1945) was an Austrian composer, with Czech roots.

In Pieter Aspe's novel "Het Dreyse incident" (English translation: "The Dreyse Incident"), Judith Claes born Noordermeer reports an assault and robbery of which her husband Patrick was the victim. Detective Inspector Van In finds that the truth is much more complicated... Most novels by Pieter Aspe have been translated into English.

Romeo is of course well known by a Shakespeare play. The young woman in his life was Juliet, not Judith.
Pierre Abelard (1079 AD - 1142 AD) was a monk, who fell in love with his pupil Heloise (born 1101). When Heloise got pregnant, her uncle decided to emasculate Abelard.

Holofernes was a Babylonian general living in the first half of the sixth century BC. He worked for Nebuchadnezzar. When he besieged the city of Bethulia, Judith seduced him and beheaded him in his sleep. This scene is the subject of paintings by (among many others) Donatello (1386-1466), Tintoretto (1518-1594) and, very strikingly, by Caravaggio (1571-1610).

Answer: Serse

Georg Friedrich Handel (or George Frederick Handel, as he called himself in Britain) was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685. He moved to London in 1712 and died there in 1759. He left us over 40 operas (of which "Rinaldo" and "Serse" are the most famous). His best praised work is his oratorio "The Messiah", which is still is widely performed.

Handel's opera "Serse" is inspired by the life of Xerxes I, king of Persia from 485 BC till 465 BC. Two of the major battles in the Persian Wars opposed Xerxes' troops against Greek forces: the battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) and the naval battle near Salamis (480 BC). The "Largo" is in fact the first aria, in which Xerxes sings to a tree "Ombra mai fu" ("Shade there never was").

Answer: Alexander the Great

Von Gluck (1714-1787) was a German composer. He has left us about 45 operas.

Charlemagne (742-814) ruled the Frankish peoples from 774 AD till his death. In 800, he was crowned Emperor.

Frederick II the Great (1712-1786) was King of Prussia from 1740 till his death. His main interest was the cultural development of Prussia, although he did expand Prussian territory at the cost of Austria. His best known achievement is probably the building of the castle "Sanssouci" near Potsdam, one of the best known examples of German rococo architecture.

Peter I the Great (1672-1725) became Czar in 1682. He tried to introduce western technical knowledge (especially regarding shipbuilding and sailing) into the agricultural empire of Russia. His political and military efforts were aimed at acquiring a western harbour that remained free of ice during winter.

Alexander III the Great (356 BC-323 BC) is the man we're looking for in this question. He became king of Macedonia in 336 BC. After subduing Greece, Egypt and Persia, he fought the Indian king Porus near the river Hydaspes.

Answer: Mithridates

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was an Italian composer. He stated himself that he had composed 115 operas, 200 masses, over 600 cantatas, etcetera. His son Domenico (1685-1757) was also a famous composer.

Myron was a Greek sculptor who lived around 440 BC. His fame was only slightly less than that of his contemporary Phidias. There's a copy of Myron's "Discus Thrower" in the National Museum in Rome. The original bronze sculpture was lost.

Masinissa (238BC-149 BC) was king of Numidia. After having fought the Romans in Spain, he joined them against Carthage and played an important role in the Roman victory near Zama (202 BC).

Midas was a mythical king of Phrygia. There are two well-known stories on his mythical life. One story tells that Apollo gave him ass's ears, which he tried to conceal with the famous Phrygian bonnet. The other story tells us how he chose as a reward that every thing he touched would turn into gold. Unfortunately he forgot to make an exception for his food and drink.

The King of Pontus, the man we were looking for in this question, was Mithridates VI Eupator (130 BC-63 BC), king of Pontus from 120 BC. The three wars he fought against Rome had a tragic ending. At the end of the third war, he had himself killed by one of his slaves in order to evade captivity.

Answer: Norma

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) was an Italian opera composer. He composed eleven operas. (Encarta Encyclopaedia states that he only wrote nine operas, but mentions eleven titles of operas by Bellini).
Maria Callas (1923-1977) was born Cecilia Kalogeropoulos - an American girl of Greek origin. She became an opera singer and made her debut in Italy. The first role she performed in the USA was Norma.
Norma is of course a fictional character, but based upon historic research on the druids of ancient Gaul.

Eleanor refers to Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122- 1204), who married with Louis VII of France (1120-1180). After the annulment of this marriage, she remarried Henry II Plantagenet (1133-1189). She was the cause of the Hundred Year's War (1337-1453), because both the English and the French kings claimed French territory by inheritance through her. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) gave the name of Leonore to the female protagonist in his opera "Fidelio". This latter Leonore is not to be confused with Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Galatea was a Greek nymph living on Sicily and wooed by Acis and Polyphemus. Polyphemus the Cyclops killed his rival with a huge rock. She inspired many classical composers: Walter Braunfels (1882-1954), Joseph Friebert (1724-1799), Hieronymus Mango (1740-1800), Loretto Vittori (1604-1670), Francesco Conti (1681-1732), Victor Massé (1822-1884) and Antonio Bruni (1759-1821).

Amaryllis was a beautiful shepherdess according to Virgil (70 BC-19 BC). She gave her name to two kinds of daffodils. Jean-Baptiste Cardonne (1730-1792) named a pastorale after her.

Answer: Cleopatra

Cimarosa (1749-1801) was an Italian composer who wrote about 95 operas. Only one of them is still regularly performed today: "Il Matrimonio Segreto" ("The Secret Marriage"), completed in 1792.
Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC. She had affairs with Julius Caesar (100 BC-45 BC) and with Mark Anthony (82BC-30BC). After Cleopatra had committed suicide, the Romans took over control in Egypt.

Answer: Salome

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) was a German composer. He composed fifteen operas, two of them based upon a libretto he wrote himself.
According to the Old Testament, Jezebel was Ahab's wife. She worshipped Baal and was punished for her heresy with a gruesome death. Some sources state that she was overrun by two horses, other sources tell that she was defenestrated and that wild dogs ate her body.

Miriam was Moses' sister. When she accused Moses of marrying a Midianite wife, she was struck by leprosy but miraculously cured by Moses.

Rebeccah was Isaac's wife. She gave birth at a high age to the twin brothers Jacob and Esau. Esau was the elder of these two, but was tricked into selling his right as a firstborn male child (and thus sole heir) for a platter of lentils.

Salome was the daughter of Herod Antipas, the governor of Judea (nowadays Israel) appointed by the Romans. He had John the Baptist incarcerated on grounds of alleged conspiracy against the Roman occupiers. Herodias, Herod's wife, suspected that John Baptist would soon convert Herod to Christianity (and hence rebellion against Rome). So she insisted that Salome should dance for Herod and ask him, as a reward, for John the Baptist's head. Richard Strauss made Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils" the turning point of his opera.

Answer: Christopher

Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931) was a French composer, who specialised in symphonies. One of his few operas was "La Légende de Saint Christophe" ("The Legend of Saint Christopher"). This opera was severely criticised for its anti-Semitic nature.

Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles. He preached in Mesopotamia and Armenia. His name-day, August 24th, has a gruesome historical connotation. It was on this day in 1572 that the French Roman-Catholics murdered thousands of Protestants. According to some paintings of this Saint-Bartholomew's night, the river Seine was coloured red by the blood of Protestants.

Saint Isidore of Seville (about 560-636) was a theologian. He was the first to attempt to write an encyclopaedia and a universal history, so he was made patron saint of librarians. In 2003, he was proposed as patron saint of the internet. If you have any problems with questions on this site, you know whom to pray for help... By the way, he is celebrated April 4th - perhaps the perfect day for playing play "impossible" quizzes?

Saint Stephen (died about 35 AD) was the first Christian martyr. He was stoned for his beliefs. His name-day is December 26th and he is patron saint of horses.

Saint Christopher carried young Jesus on his shoulders across a river. This is not only the reason why he is celebrated as patron saint of travellers (and of travel agents), but also an explanation for his name: it means quite literally "He who carries Christ". There are still in Belgium some ceremonies of blessing vehicles on his name-day.

Answer: Entertaining

Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was a French composer who completed at least 25 operas. Only his opera "Manon" (1884) is still regularly performed. "Thais" had its first night in 1894.

Farming was by far the most common occupation. In ancient Greek, a farmer is called a "georgos". Now you know the literal meaning of "George" - not the most obvious name for six English kings.

Many Greek teachers became world famous. The ancient Greek word for teacher is "didaskolos", a word from which we derive the word "didactic".

There's no evidence that ancient Greeks had already professional nurses. The Greek word for a nurse is "keidemoon", although nursing would be translated as "therapeuoo". This latter word has given us derivatives as "therapy" and "therapeutically".

"Hetaerae" were women entertaining men - although the profession was not only prostitution. They provided cultural entertainment also. Perhaps the best translation is "courtesan". Unlike Japanese geishas, there was no class of "hetaerae" that limited their profession to cultural entertainment.