Match the Opera to the Setting Quiz

Answer: England

Written by Vincenzo Bellini, I puritani takes place during the English Civil War of the 1640s. It is about a love affair between a government sympathizer and a supporter of the anti-government forces. Unlike most operas, the lovers actually get together in the end and live happily ever after.

Answer: Spain

Carmen, by Georges Bizet, is about a naive soldier who is seduced by a fiery Gypsy girl. She eventually falls in love with somebody else, and the soldier kills her in a jealous rage.

Answer: Egypt

Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi, is about a love between an Egyptian military commander and a Nubian princess, called Aida. The two die together in the end.

Answer: Japan

Madame Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini, is about a U.S. naval officer who marries a 15-year-old Japanese girl, without intending to stay with her. When he returns three years later, the girl stabs herself to death.

Answer: Cyprus

Otello, by Giuseppe Verdi, is based on the Shakespearean play "Othello". Otello is the governor of Cyprus, arriving on the island after a naval battle with the Turks. He is victimized by Iago, who pursues a sinister plot to convince Otello that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair.

In the end Otello strangles Desdemona, and then kills himself when he realizes how badly he has been misled by Iago.

Answer: Gaza

This opera is based on the tale told in chapter 16 of the Old Testament book of Judges. In the end, Samson fells the two pillars of the temple, killing himself and his enemies.

Answer: France

La bohème, by Giacomo Puccini, is about four artistic people who share an attic apartment in 1830s Paris. The four are all hopelessly poor, and the two women leave in favor of wealthy lovers. In the end, however, the women come back and one of them dies in the loft of consumption.

Answer: Russia

This opera, by Modest Mussorgsky, is set in Russia around 1600, a time of unrest and confusion between two dynasties. It had its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1873, and the plot, such as it is, centers around who will become the new ruler of Russia.

Answer: United States

Porgy and Bess, written by George Gershwin, is set in 1930 on the Charleston, South Carolina waterfront, in a black neighborhood called "Catfish Row". Porgy is jailed briefly for refusing to cooperate with a murder investigation, and upon his release discovers that Bess has run off to New York.

The opera premiered in 1935, and over the years since then it has been the subject of considerable controversy for the way in which it depicts African-American culture.

Answer: Germany

This opera, by Richard Wagner, takes place in Nuremberg around the middle of the sixteenth century. The plot centers around a song contest being held by the mastersinger's guild on St. John's Day (Midsummer's Day). A young knight (Walther) must win the contest to win the hand of the woman (Eva) whom he is smitten with. Walther learns to sing and in the end he wins the contest.