Early Opera Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tommaso Albinoni

Albinoni (1671-1751) was a Venetian composer. In his lifetime he was best known for his operas (between 50 and 81), but most of these are alas lost. Part of his instrumental work survives, mostly sonatas and concerti for strings. He was also one of the few Baroque composers who produced concerti for oboe.
The "Adagio in G minor" from the "Concerto for Oboe" has two oddities. First of all, it has been ascribed to Albinoni, but it was published in 1958 by Remo Giazotto, who claimed to have found only a few of the opening measures and to have completed the work himself.
Secondly, although its title refers to the oboe, many recordings don't use this instrument at all. In many of the popular recordings a string quartet plays the melody, and a church organ delivers the basso continuo.
"Didone abbandonata" was the title of multiple operas: February 1724 by Domenico Natale Sarri, December 1724 by Albinoni, 1726 by Leonardo Vinci, 1742 by Johann Adolf Hasse, and so on. It tells the story of Queen Dido of Carthage who has to take leave from her lover Aeneas, who sails to Italy. Struck with grief, Dido commits suicide on a pyre.
Antonio Maria Abbatini was a composer whose biography leaves some ambiguity. He may have been born either in 1595 or in 1609-1610. (Perhaps he had a brother named Antonio too). Antonio Maria Abbatini died in 1677 or 1679. He worked primarily in Rome, and left us many works of sacred music. He also produced three operas, but these are no longer performed.
Adolfati (1722-1760) and Amato (1629-1670) are two other Italian baroque composers.

Answer: Thomas Arne

Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1779) is the prolific composer we're looking for. Arne composed the music for at least 100 stage productions. He started his prolific output with the operas "Rosamond" and "Tom Thumb the Great", both in 1733.
In 1740 Arne composed music to the masque (later transformed into an oratorio and even later into a full opera) "Alfred", with the finale "Rule, Britannia!". Furthermore Arne started in 1740 the work for many of Shakespeare's plays: "The Tempest" (1740), "As You Like It" (1740), "Twelfth Night" (1741), "The Merchant of Venice" (1741), "Cymbeline" (1744), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1748), and "Romeo and Juliet" (1750).
Besides his work for stage productions, Arne has also composed odes, cantatas, a few masses, and some sonatas.
Clarke (1674-1707) is best known for his "Trumpet Voluntary", officially designated as the "Prince of Denmark's March". Gibbons (1615-1676) specialized in instrumental music and sacred music, but also worked on the 1653 masque "Cupid or Death". Humphrey (1647-1674) left us music for John Donne's poem "A Hymn to God the Father". 

Answer: Robert Cambert

Cambert was born in 1628. After his studies, he started his career as organist and later Superintendent of Music to the dowager Queen Anne. Cambert joined the Académie royale de musique (founded in 1669 by his friend and librettist Pierre Perrin).
In 1671 "Pomone" had its first night: the first real French opera, adapted to the French local taste. It ran for eight months and was performed more than 140 times (so on average four times a week).
In 1673 Cambert moved to London, where he staged his opera "Ariane" in 1674. Cambert died in 1677.
Lully (1632-1687) took over the Académie and designed a tradition of French operas disavowing Italian influences (although he was born and raised in Florence). He is arguably the best known of the French Baroque composers. Lully left us at least 14 operas, besides several ballets and sacred music.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was another prolific French composer. Besides about six operas, he composed several masses. One of these masses, the "Te Deum", contains a prologue that was used by the European Broadcast Union to announce international television programs from 1950 onwards.
Rameau (1683-1764) was Lully's successor as most prolific French Baroque opera composer. Although Rameau's first opera had its premiere when the composer had already reached the age of fifty, he still produced thirty-odd operas, among which "Les Indes Galantes" is probably the best known. 

Answer: Christoph Willibald von Gluck

Von Glück (1714-1787) was born in Bavaria, but moved around through Europe many times. He studied math in Prague and music in Milan. From 1745 until 1752, he composed in various cities, including London, Dresden, Copenhagen and Naples, before he settled in Vienna. This period he only composed on Italian libretti, but he found the Italian tradition had too much stress on mannerist embellishments. Then he moved to Paris and reworked some of his Italian works into a French-styled and francophone opera.
His last opera was "Iphigenia auf Tauris" (1781), the German translation of his 1779 opera in French.
Beer (1655-1700) has left only one opera of any fame: "Die keusche Susanne".
Fischer (1656-1746) and Stölzel (1690-1749) have apparently left only operas with German libretti. Fischer composed about eight operas, Stölzel produced at least 20 operas and some Singspiele.

Answer: Georg Friedrich Handel

"Serse" is based partly upon the life of the Persian King Xerxes. In the most moving aria Xerxes sings to a tree "Never was made // a plant's shade // more dear and loving // or gentle".
The instrumental version is a typical lamenting solo, very popular in funeral rites.
Georg Friedrich Händel was born in Halle (Germany) in 1685. He studied organ, harpsichord, violin and oboe, as well as composition. In 1703 he moved to Hamburg, where he published his first operas. After a tour in Italy, Händel settled in London in 1712 for the rest of his career. He also altered his first names to an English variant: George Frideric (or Frederick).
Händel died in London in 1759, leaving a catalogue of over 600 compositions. Among these are 42 operas (including "Serse"), 26 oratorios (including "The Messiah"), and others (for instance the "Water Music" and "Music to the Royal Fireworks").
De Almeida (1702-1755, Portuguese), Mica (1694-1744, Czech) and Roseingrave (1690-1766, Irish) were other Baroque composers, but these are quite obscure. The better known composers during the Baroque all came from Italy, Germany, France or England. 

Answer: Claudio Monteverdi

Monteverdi was born in 1567 in Cremona, at that time part of the Duchy of Milan. He started composing at an early age: his first motets were published in 1582. Monteverdi spent some twenty years in Mantua (1592-1613), where he published his first operas and continued to write sacred music. From 1613 until his death in 1643 he worked in Venice.
Monteverdi was one of the key figures in the evolution from Renaissance music (polyphony, emphasis on the text rather than on the melody) to Baroque (more elaborate melodies, emphasis on the musical style).
Monteverdi left us at least seven operas, a few ballets, and many motets and madrigals.

Answer: Jacopo Peri

Jacopo Peri (1561-1631) is the composer we're looking for. Other than "La Dafne" and "Euridice" he left us at least five other operas, as well as sacred music and ballet.
Da Gagliano (1582-1643) composed another version of "La Dafne", dating from 1608, as well as at least six other operas.
Caccini (1551-1618) is a close competitor for the title of composer of the first opera. His first work "Il rapimento di Cefalo" was performed in 1600, and in 1602 he made his own version of "L'Euridice". His daughter Francesca (1587-1640) also left us four compositions for stage work, dating between 1607 and 1624.
Monteverdi (1597-1643) was the most important of the "early birds" in operatic composition. His style was already miles ahead of Peri's masterpieces. Monteverdi debuted in 1607 with "L'Orfeo".

Answer: Scarlatti

It was the family Scarlatti sketched here above. Besides the composers Alessandro, Francesco, Domenico, Pietro Filippo and Giuseppe, there was also Rosa Scarlatti (1727-1775), Giuseppe's sister, who worked as an operatic soprano.
Alessandro completed more than sixty operas, over five hundred cantatas for voice solo, some oratorios and some masses.
Domenico specialized in the keyboard sonatas, of which he left us 555. He also completed about a dozen operas.
Francesco is best known for his sacred work, among others a mass composed in 1703 and Psalm 51 completed in 1714.
Pietro Filippo completed one opera, three cantatas and many sonatas for keyboard.
Giuseppe finished about thirty operas, besides a ballet, an oratorio and three cantatas.

Answer: Adam und Eva

The correct shortened title is "Adam und Eva". The full title translates to "The Created, Downfallen and Erect Man" or words to the like.
Source is of course the book of Genesis: the full story of Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Eden, sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, and were expelled.
As the opera debuted in 1678, I sincerely doubt the costumes were limited to fig leaves as stated by the Bible. In that period such extravagances were not allowed: even if a woman showed too much of an ankle, she could be mistaken for a prostitute.
Johann Theile (1646-1728) was a Baroque composer. He produced three operas, various Singspiele, masses, canzonettas, passions and motets. He is not as famous as his pupil Dietrich Buxtehude.
The tale of Samson and Delilah has been transformed to an opera by Camille Saint-Saens. But I don't know any opera based upon the wedding at Cana nor on the Sermon of the Mount.

Answer: Lima

Why would anyone pose this question? Well, this opera was the first one with a premiere in the Americas, and might have been the first opera performed outside of Europe.
So the first night of this opera took place in Lima, at the occasion of the coming of age of the Spanish crown prince Philip V.
There had already been another Spanish opera with the same title, composed by Juan Hidalgo de Polanco in 1660.
The story tells about the love of Venus and Adonis, and the title refers to the white roses stained by Adonis' blood in the final.
Torrejon y Velasco was born in Spain in 1644 and moved to South America in 1667, where he was appointed maestro di capilla in Lima. He remained in this function until his death in 1728.
For the first composer born in the Americas, we'd have to wait a bit longer. Manuel de Zumaya was born in Mexico in about 1678 and would compose his first opera in 1708.