Operatic History in the Eighteenth Century Quiz

Answer: John Churchill

Jonas (1827-1905) was a French composer. He created 19 operas, although two of them have never been performed up to date (2007).
The Cockerill family was instrumental in developing Belgian heavy industry. The most important member of this family was John Cockerill (1790-1840), founder of the eponymous steel factories (nowadays part of Arcelor-Mittal).
John Boyd Dunlop (1840-1921) started his career as a veterinary. However, he is best known as the founder of the eponymous company that produces pneumatic tyres. John Dunlop tried to patent pneumatic tyres in 1888, but his fellow Scotsman Robert William Thomson (1822-1873) had already taken a patent in France (1846) and in the USA (1847).
There are of course many people called John Roberts. In this question I refer to the Australian John Charles Roberts (1934-2006), founder of the building company Multiplex Constructions, Pty Limited.
John Churchill (1650-1722) was the first Duke of Marlborough. He commanded the British army from 1701 until 1711. Famous victories of his over the French army include Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), Oudenaarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709). His best known descendant is of course Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister from 1940 until 1945 and again from 1951 until 1955.

Answer: Rob Roy

Henry de Koven (1859-1920) was an American composer. He left us 20 operettas and two operas.
Rob Roy McGregor (1671-1734) was a Scottish cattleman. He supported the Jacobite rising in 1715 in order to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. Their candidate for the British crown was Prince James Stuart (1688-1766), son of King James II (1633-1701). However, in the end the revolt was suppressed by King George I (1660-1727), the first of the Hanoverian monarchs. Rob's father was imprisoned, and Rob's mother died of grief before Rob's father was released.
Rob Roy inspired (among others) Daniel Defoe (1659-1731) and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Both are romantic novels, in which pure fiction covers far more pages than do the facts.

Michael Caton-Jones directed in 1995 a movie named after Rob Roy.
Gourmands might associate the name Rob Roy with a cocktail containing Scotch whisky, sweet vermouth and angostura bitter.

Answer: Corsica

Paisiello (1740-1816) was an Italian opera composer. He completed at least 92 compositions for musical theatre: "comical dramas", "comical theatre feasts", musical dramas, intermezzi, musical comedies, etc.
If you picked Gran Canaria, I would advise you to improve your geographical knowledge. Gran Canaria and the rest of the Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean (off the West African coast), and not in the Mediterranean Sea.
Capri is the Italian island near Naples where the Roman Emperor Tiberius (42BC-37AD) stayed for a major part of his reign. During the eighteenth century, Capri was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Crete is a Greek island that belonged in the eighteenth century to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Emperor would not have been amused if some obscure baron had claimed to be the King of Crete.
Theodor von Neuhoff (1694-1756) proclaimed himself King of Corsica in 1736. His reign was not very successful, because of lack of allies, too ambitious warfare, and the envy of France and Genoa. Theodor was the first and only king of Corsica, deposed by the Genoese in 1743. Theodor spent the last years of his life in prison because of his personal insolvency.
Genoa sold Corsica in 1768 to France.
The famous person born in 1769 was Napoleone Buonaparte, whom we know under his French name Napoleon Bonaparte. He died in exile in 1821.

Answer: Stradivari

Hubay (1858-1937) was a Hungarian composer who left us nine operas.
Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) invented the saxophone, a brass instrument named after him. He also constructed other brass instruments.
Silbermann was a German family of organ builders during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The family includes Andreas (1678-1733), his brother Gottfried (1683-1735) and Andreas' sons Johann Andreas (1712-1783), Johann Daniel (1717-1766) and Johann Heinrich (1727-1799). Apart from the classical church organs, the family Silbermann also constructed harpsichords, clavichords and pianofortes.
Steinway is a well known make of pianos. It was named after the man who founded this American factory: the German Heinrich Steinweg (1797-1871).
Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) made several violins and other string instruments. In 2007 there were still about 650 instruments in use which Antonio Stradivari built. Using volcanic remnants in the region of Cremona, where he lived, gave the violin a specific sound that was much appreciated at that time - and ever since.

Answer: Madame de Pompadour

Fall (1873-1925) was an Austrian composer. He completed 37 compositions for musical theatre, mostly operettas. His best known operetta is probably "Die Dollarprinzessin" ("The Dollar Princess").
All of the ladies I've mentioned had the title of "marquise".
Madame de Verteuil (born Henriette d'Entragues, 1579-1633) was a girl who seduced the French King Henry IV shortly after his favourite, Gabrielle d'Estrées (1571-1599), died.
Madame de Montespan (born Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouard, 1640-1707) was perhaps the best known mistress of King Louis XIV. She had at least seven children by him.
Madame de Maintenon (born Françoise d'Aubigné, 1635-1719) was previously married to a crippled poet, Paul Scarron (1610-1660). However, the Catholic Encyclopaedia states that this marriage wasn't consumated. After Scarron's death, Françoise was charged with the education of King Louis' children with Madame de Montespan. In 1683, she secretly married King Louis XIV.
Madame de Pompadour (born Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, 1721-1764) was the favourite of King Louis XV. She gave her name not only to Fall's operetta, but also to a quite expensive dish: sole Pompadour, flavoured with crumbled truffles.

Answer: Frederick

Mosca (1772-1839) was an Italian composer who created at least 42 operas. His brother Luigi (1775-1824) also composed about 16 operas.
Both Frederick and William were typical names of Prussian monarchs of the Hohenzollern dynasty. This dynasty comprised Frederick I (king between 1701 and 1713), Frederick William I (ruled from 1713 to 1740), Frederick II the Great (subject of Mosca's opera), Frederick William II (ruled 1786-1797), Frederick William III (ruled 1797-1840), Frederick William IV (king between 1840 and 1861), William I (king from 1861 until 1871, then German Emperor until his death in 1888) and William II (Emperor from 1888 until 1918).
Frederick the Great (born 1712) reorganised Prussia and gave it an army with tremendous discipline. He acquired the regions of Silesia, Posen and West Prussia (all now in Poland). When Frederick wasn't occupied with army matters, he improved the Prussian administration or sponsored enlightened artists.
Emperor William II (1859-1941) will probably always be remembered as "The Kaiser", who led Germany into the First World War. History has not yet provided an unequivocal answer to the question whether William deliberately entered war, or was forced into war by previous diplomatic errors. After accepting the resignation his principal advisor, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), William II didn't succeed in maintaining a consequent foreign policy.
One of the options I've mentioned is Charles, more precisely Charles V (1500-1558) of the Habsburg family, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Spain, etcetera. Charles ruled the first Empire "in which the sun never sets": the Spanish colonies stretched from the Philippines in the West to Mexico in the East.
The Joseph to whom I refer in this question is Joseph II of Austria (1741-1790), Emperor of Austria from 1765 until his death. He tried to reorganise Austria and meddled quite a lot in Church affairs.

Answer: No

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was one of "The Five" - Russian composers who gave Russian classical music an original sound. He composed 20 operas. "The Five" also include Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), Cesar Cui (1835-1918) and Mily Balakirev (1837-1910). The opera "Mozart and Salieri" was based upon a theatre play by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837).

Modern science has not discovered without any doubt the cause of Mozart's death. However, the hypothesis of death by natural causes is widely supported.

Some illnesses that could have been responsible for Mozart's death are influenza and rheumatic fever. Salieri (1750-1825) had apparently nothing to do with it.

Answer: Charlotte Corday

Mascagni (1863-1945) was an Italian composer, best known for his opera "Cavaleria Rusticana" that is still performed regularly to date. He left us a total of eighteen operas and operettas.
Peter Benoit (1834-1901) was a Belgian composer. He left us at least two operas, three oratorios, four cantatas and two compositions for theatre music.
Danton (1759-1794) held several important jobs during the French Revolution: Minister of Justice, later member of the "Comité de Salut Public" ("Public Health Committee"). When he opposed Robespierre, he was convicted of treason and executed. By the way, Danton gave his name to an opera by Gottfried von Einem (1918-1996).
Robespierre (1758-1794) acted as President of the French Republic in roughly the same period. He would have commanded the execution of over 3.000 people in one year.
Both Danton and Robespierre frequently used the guillotine to silence their opponents, and both were silenced by the guillotine themselves.
De Beauharnais (1763-1814) was the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). They divorced in 1809 because this marriage was barren. Josephine had two children with her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais (1760-1794): Eugene (1781-1824) and Hortense (1783-1837).
Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was a newspaper editor during the French Revolution. Because of a serious skin disease (probably scrofula), he had to take a bath every day.
Charlotte Corday (1768-1793) killed Marat in his bathtub. She calmly waited to be arrested and was guillotined soon afterwards.

Answer: Les Brigands

Kempter (1844-1918) was a German composer. We know two of his operas, the lyric play "Dornröschen" ("Sleeping Beauty") and an idyllic play.
Offenbach (1819-1880) was a prolific German composer who worked almost only in France. He scandalised the public with the "French Can-Can" - a native Algerian dance with high kicks for men, which he rearranged for female dancers. These dancers showed their legs up to their thighs, and (according to an uncorroborated rumour) sometimes even well beyond ... The website www.operone.de lists 101 operas and operettas, and also 20 vaudevilles by Offenbach.
"Le Marais" ("The Marsh") is a term that was also used during the French Revolution to describe the opposition of the political faction of the "Montagnards" (including Robespierre), and the "Girondins". Indeed: the Montagnards (left wing - progressive) and the Girondins (right wing - conservative) sat on high elevated seats, while "Le Marais" had its seats in the lower middle of the Parliament.
"La Cinquième Colonne" ("The Fifth Column") relates to the collaborators during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
"L'Etranger" ("The Stranger") is the title of a novel by Albert Camus (1913-1960).
The Peasants' War of 1798 opposed a great number of Flemish people who lacked military training and equipment, to the French army (the "sans-culottes"). Some of the causes for the uprising were taxation and the draft. The French considered their opponents a bunch of highwaymen, which they called "Brigands".
The nickname of the French was derived from their uniform: in stead of the traditional knee breeches (known as "culottes" in the French language in the Eighteenth Century), they wore long trousers. In modern French language, sans-culottes would have a pejorative inclination: modern French uses the word "culottes" for underpants!

Answer: Giacomo Casanova

Lortzing (1801-1851) was a German composer. He left us about 20 compositions for musical theatre.
Casanova apparently tried out several jobs. In his "Histoire de ma Vie" ("The Story of My Life"), he boosts about an endless series of women he would have seduced. Since then, his name became synonym of a "womanizer".
Don't confuse Casanova with Don Giovanni (Don Juan): the latter was a fictitious character and title subject of an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
By the way, there has been a historical Don Juan: a bastard son of Emperor Charles V. This historical Don Juan (full name Don Juan de Austria, 1547-1578) is best known for leading the Christian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). The historical Don Juan has nothing to do with the fictitious character Don Giovanni after which Mozart named his opera.

Sources for this quiz include: "World History" by Carl Grimberg, "7000 Years of World History" edited by Christoph Columbus Verlag AG, "Verschueren Groot Encyclopedisch Woordenboek", "Phaeton's Great Opera Book", "Le Petit Larousse", "Kroniek van België", the Encarta Encyclopedia on CD-ROM, www.operone.de, www.naxos.com, the Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org/cathen) and Wikipedia (http:/en.wikipedia.org).