Music for the Human Voice Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Shakespearean character Falstaff

'Sir John in Love' is a conglomeration of several works of Shakespeare's time, including his 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and a scattering of some poems by contemporary Ben Jonson. The music runs the gamut from drinking songs ('Back and side go bare go bare both foot and hand go cold, but belly God send thee good ale enough...') to love songs ('See the chariot at hand here of love wherein my lady rideth') to an unfortunate encounter with Faeries where Falstaff gets pinched quite a bit. Even the melody of greensleeves makes an appearance.

Answer: Orff's 'Carmina Burana'

The libretto is definitely not what you'd expect to find in an abbey. Opening with a cry against the whims of fate ('Oh Fortuna', which has been in more commercials than I can count), it continues on to tell of the beginning of spring, events in the tavern (including a very drunk abbot and a swan lamenting her coming roast), and the court of love (including the glories of sex) before finishing off with a reprise of the cry against the cycle of fate.

Many consider 'Carmina Burana' to be the most enjoyable choral work ever composed, at least for the singer.

Answer: La Traviata

Of course, I left out a few little bits of the plot where Violetta mistakenly decides Alfredo no longer loves her, Alfredo mistakenly decides Violetta no longer loves him, and general confusion ensues. The soprano who sang the part of the sickly Violetta on opening night weighed over 200 pounds. When a character announced she had 'wasted away', unintentional hilarity ensued.

Answer: Benjamin Britten

The Requiem was first performed at the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed during the Battle of Britain, and dedicated to the memory of four of Britten's friends who had been killed in the First World War. It incorporated both the Latin text and poetry by Wilfred Owen.

Answer: Soprano

Yes, they were all male sopranos, castrati to be precise. In the baroque period, it sometimes happened that boys from poor families with beautiful soprano voices were castrated so that they could retain their voices while developing the lung power of a full grown man.

They sang female and heroic parts in a time where having women on stage was frowned upon. The last Castrati, Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922. The closest thing we have to a modern equivalent is the countertenor, a male who sings in falsetto, but without losing any important parts in the process.

Answer: Porgy and Bess

'Porgy and Bess' was based off a novel by DuBose Heyward. Even though Gershwin carefully avoided using the word Opera to describe it, for years it remained more popular in the opera houses of Europe than in the theatres of America.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

'The Testament of Freedom' is a work of 4 movements: 'The God who Gave us Life', 'We Have Counted the Cost', 'We Fight Not For Conquest', and 'I Shall Not Die Without a Hope'. The texts of the first three movements were written around the beginning of the American Revolution and cite America's reasons and hopes upon entering war, while the latter was written close to Jefferson's Death. Thompson is also known for 'Frostiana', a setting of Robert Frost's poems, and a beautiful 'Alleluia'.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

In Bernstein's work, the feuding Capulets and Montagues are replaced by the feuding Sharks and Jets, two ethnic gangs fighting over the same turf in New York City. Tony, a Jet, falls in love with Maria, the adopted daughter of a girlfriend of the leader of the Sharks. Tragedy soon ensues.

Answer: Claudio Monteverdi

Admittedly, the question of which opera is oldest is still open to some debate, but 'Orfeo' is definitely a leading candidate. It tells the story of Orpheus, who goes down into the underworld in search of his beloved Euridyce. Orpheus finds her and is told he can bring her out...but only if he does not look back on his journey out.

When he turns around once on the journey back, Euridyce is lost forever. Orpheus is a popular source for opera, with Gluck ('Orpheus and Euridyce') and Offenbach ('Orpheus in the Underworld') also composing famous versions.

Answer: Friedrich von Schiller

'Freude Schoner Gotterfunken', or 'Ode to Joy' as it is better known, is taken from Schiller's 'Ode an die Freude'. It is the reason Beethoven's 9th is known as his Choral symphony.