Name That Opera! (19th & 20th century) Quiz

Answer: Fidelio

First performed in Vienna in 1805 (with a final revised version first performed there in 1814), Beethoven's "Fidelio" is one of a handful of operas which portrays a woman as its heroine (and she lives!). Marzelline, the jailer Rocco's daughter, was happy with Jaquino (her father's assistant) and was going to marry him (they end up back together at the end of the opera). Well, that was until 'Fidelio,' who is actually Leonora in disguise coming to free her unjustly imprisoned husband, shows up on the scene.

She sings about 'him' in Act I: "Oh, if I were already united with you, and could call you husband!"

Answer: La Fanciulla del West

Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West," after the play by David Belasco ("The Girl of the Golden West"), was first performed in New York in 1910. Just as Belasco's "Madame Butterfly" had made a strong (operatic) impression upon Puccini in London, so did "Golden West" when he first saw it in New York in 1907.

The play and the opera are about the California Gold Rush. This baritone aria was influenced by folk songs and Native American music; even though it is in Italian, it uses a motif from the Festive Sun Dance of the Zuni Indians. Jake sings: "What will my old mother do if I do not return? How she will weep!"

Answer: L'Elisir d'Amore

Nemorino sings this aria in Act II of Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore," first performed in Milan in 1832, when he sees Adina, his love interest, crying. She is crying because after he is given an expensive elixir (so that she will fall in love with him), which is actually a bottle of Bordeaux wine, all the girls in the village (who learns that his late rich uncle just left him a lot of money) start paying a lot of attention to him. Up until then, he had been trying to woo Adina in vain, because she had been ignoring him. And when he ignores her, she realizes how much she really loves him, and starts to cry. ("A furtive tear welled up from her eyes.") Of course, this opera ends happily with the lovers being united.

Answer: Manon

First performed in Paris in 1884, Massenet's "Manon" is not to be confused with Puccini's later and much more dramatic (literally and vocally speaking) "Manon Lescaut," though they are based on the same story. Massenet's is in French, while Puccini's is Italian.

In Act III in the fashionable Cours-la-Reine in Paris, Manon, who escaped from a convent where her parents had safely ensconced her, coquettishly declares: "Let's make the most of our youth, of the days which springtime brings; let's love, laugh, and sing without stopping; we are still only 20 years old!" Too bad that this opera does not have such a happy ending.

Answer: Rigoletto

Verdi's "Rigoletto" (first performed in Venice in 1851) is named after the tragic figure of the court jester. Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda is seduced then deserted by the Duke of Mantua. She tells her father in Act II how it happened: "Every holy day I went to pray.

A handsome young man was always there... "I'm a poor student (Gualtier Malde)," he told me, and protested his love for me!" To make a long story short, realizing that he does not truly love her though she still loves him (she watches him flirting with the not so innocent Maddalena, Sparafucile's sister), she sacrifices her own life for his, after her father has paid the assassin Sparafucile to murder him.

Answer: Hansel and Gretel

This beautiful duet is from Engelbert Humperdinck's (1854-1921) Hansel und Gretel. First performed in Weimar in 1893, it is almost always sung in English in the U.S. The duet is sung by the pair in the forest as they grow tired. After running from their very angry mother for having broken the only jug of milk in the house, they are alone and terrified, as they begin to 'see things' in the woods.

The Sandman comes to calm and lull them into sleep as he (this is sung by a soprano) 'throws' sand into their eyes.

Answer: L'Enfant et les Sortileges

This enchanting little opera ("The Boy and the Magic Spells") was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1925. It was composed by Maurice Ravel with a libretto by Colette. The Boy (L'Enfant) is a naughty child (trouser role for mezzo) who is taught a somewhat frightful lesson by the things he hurts and destroys: from the broken Chinese Cup and a Princess he has torn out of a fairy tale book, to a wounded Squirrel whom he eventually saves, thus saving himself from the angry Shepherds of his ripped wallpaper.

In this aria near the beginning of the opera (in one act), the Fire (soprano) comes out of the fireplace to warn him: "Stand back! I keep the good children warm, but I burn the bad ones!" He dances around the frightened child, about to burn him, when Ash comes and puts him out.

Answer: Der Rosenkavalier

This 'silvery' trio is found in Act III, at the conclusion of Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" ("The Cavalier of the Rose"), first performed in Dresden in 1911. As the bearer of the ceremonial rose which the fiance (Ochs) sends to his fiancee (Sophie), Octavian, the young Feldmarschallin's lover, arrives to present the rose, falling in love with Sophie in Act II. With "Le Nozze di Figaro"-like shenanigans, in which Octavian (a 'trouser' role sung by a mezzo-soprano) is disguised as Mariandel to compromise Ochs, we see the two young lovers in Act III, along with the Feldmarschallin who has arranged for the two to marry and realizes that she must say farewell to Octavian, Sophie and Octavian, sing: "It is a dream, it cannot be that the two of us are together."

Answer: Porgy and Bess

Yes, indeed, each time this aria or song is sung, it is a lullaby to calm Jake and Clara's baby; it is first sung by Clara in Act I, then by Bess in Act II, as the baby's parents have both been drowned at sea. The dialect in which "Porgy and Bess" was written is based on Gullah, which is still spoken today in a small part of South Carolina.

The opera/musical was first performed in New York in 1935. The executors of the Gershwin estate have insisted that it be performed by black singers in the U.S.

Answer: The Bohemian Girl

First performed in London in 1843, Balfe's "Bohemian Girl" is the story of Arline, the daughter of the Governor of Pressburg, who is abducted as a child by gypsies. She falls in love with Thaddeus, the gypsies' leader, who is actually a Polish nobleman in disguise. In this aria in Act II, Arline tells him of a dream she had. He then reveals that he saved her life as a child.

Answer: Ariadne auf Naxos

R. Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" (Arianna of Naxos) is one of my favorite operas, mostly because of the character Zerbinetta. The original version was performed in Stuttgart in 1912, with the revised version, the one that is usually performed today, being first performed in 1916.

As everyone makes preparations in the Prologue for the impending opera, the Composer (a trouser role for mezzo-soprano, hence the "(s)/he" in the question) expounds on the meaning of music, which he considers "a noble art."

Answer: Cavalleria Rusticana

This aria, from Pietro Mascagni's (1863-1945) "Cavalleria Rusticana" ("Rustic Chivalry"), was first performed in Rome in 1890. The entire opera, in one act, takes place on Easter morning in a Sicilian village. We are now in the genre of verismo (realistic) opera, so the story is not so far-fetched. Santuzza and Turiddu were lovers, but now it seems that he is courting his old flame Lola who is now married to Alfio; she explains all of this to Mamma Lucia, telling her "you know it, Mamma". Santuzza hints of this to Alfio, who then kills Turiddu in a duel.

Answer: Don Pasquale

This is the baritone aria from the first act of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" (first performed in Paris in 1843). Desperate to get married, Don Pasquale has enlisted the help of his friend Dr. Malatesta, who says he happens to have a sister, 'Sofronia,' (who is actually his niece Norina) who is "as beautiful as an angel visiting Earth."

Answer: La Traviata

Though her name is Violetta Valery, Verdi calls her "La Traviata" ("The Fallen Woman"; first performed in Venice in 1853), based on Dumas's "La Dame aux Camelias." The quote is from the duet at the beginning of Act II in which Alfredo Germont (pere) has come to ask Violetta to leave Alfredo (fils) because he has to get his daughter, who is "as pure as an angel that God has given" him, married.

But should the fiance find out that her brother is living with a courtesan, he will not marry her. By the way, the reason Dumas' play was called "The Lady of the Camellias" is because as a courtesan, she would wear a white camellia in her hair for the days she is 'available,' and a red one for the days during 'that time of the month' which she is not.

Answer: Candide

After opening in Boston on October 29, 1956, Bernstein's "Candide" debuted on Broadway on the first of December. It closed in February of 1957 after only 73 performances. I guess the public could not take in such beautifully complex music set to Voltaire's farce.

The libretto was originally by Lillian Hellman; it was revised in 1973 by Hugh Callingham Wheeler with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The final revised version is from 1988 (Bernstein died in 1990), which is the one usually performed today.

After all the trials and tribulations that all the different characters experience throughout the story, they finally decide to live modestly and take the best that the world has to offer at the end of the operetta.