Operantics I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ruggiero Leoncavallo

While Ruggiero Leoncavallo's 'Pagliacci' (1891) is often paired with Mascagni's work in performance, only Puccini ('Le Villi'), Spinelli ('Labilia') and Giordano ('Marina') entered works in the competition (among seventy-three entries.) Oddly enough, Spinelli, the second place winner, has not remained in the repertory, while Giordano and Puccini are often performed in the opera houses of the world.

Answer: Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach, composer of 'Orphee aux enfers', 'La belle Helene', and 'La Perichole', often signed his name 'O. de Cologne.'

Answer: Oliver Twist

He also considered subjects as diverse as Victor Hugo's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', Giovanni Verga's 'La Lupa' (The She-Wolf) and Marie Antoinette as the bases for operatic projects.

Answer: Domenico Cimarosa

Pfitzner's 'Palestrina', Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Mozart and Salieri', and von Flotow's 'Alessandro Stradella' were based on the lives of actual composers. Cimarosa's 'Il maestro di capella' concerns an imaginary singer-composer preparing an orchestra for a concert.

Answer: Paul Hindemith

Stravinsky's 'The Rake's Progress' was based on etchings of William {Hogarth;} Jules Massenet's 'Don Quichotte' on engravings of Gustave {Dore;} Enrique Granado's 'Goyescas' on paintings of Francisco de Goya. While Paul Hindemith's 'Mathis der Mahler' has the life of German painter Matthias Grunewald as its source, it's primary inspiration was the artist's struggle in a brutal political climate (Catholicism vs. Lutheranism), much like the situation Hindemith found himself during the Nazi's rise to power.

Answer: Leo Delibes

Friedrich Nietzsche, after his break with Wagner, preferred the music of Leo Delibes, which he appreciated for its lack of depth. Delibes' one enduring operatic work is 'Lakme'. Of the operas of the Wagnerian French movement, 'Gwendoline' (Chabrier), 'Penelope' (Faure) and 'Le roi Arthus' (Chausson) have not carved a permanent place in the international repertory.

Answer: Intermezzo

While American musical theater owes much to the commedia dell'arte and buffa elements of the Italian intermezzo, it is most like singspiel, opera comique and ballad opera in that it alternates song forms with spoken dialogue.

Answer: Rinaldo, George Frideric Handel

Gluck, Rossini and Dvorak all based their works on {Tasso;} Handel based his opera on an Italian translation of a libretto by Aaron Hill.

Answer: The Immortal Hour, Rutland Boughton

While the works of Balfe, Wallace and Benedict are collectively know as 'The English Ring', Rutland Boughton's 'The Immortal Hour' is the most Wagnerian in compositional style.

Answer: Mazeppa

The members of 'The Mighty Handful' were Modest Mussorgsky ('Boris Godounov'), Alexander Borodin ('Prince Igor'), Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov ('Sadko'), Mily Balakirev and Cesar Cui. The composer of 'Mazeppa' was Peter Tchaikovsky, who, while certainly Russian in spirit, is not associated with Russian nationalism.

Answer: The Queen of Spades, Peter Tchaikovsky

The Queen of Spades has an unnamed gambling house in the plot, but only in 'Falstaff' (The Garter Inn), 'La boheme' (Cafe Momus), and 'Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Luther's Tavern) are the characters besottedly located.

Answer: Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev did not set a version of Prevost's {work;} however, both Auber and Massenet wrote an opera titled 'Manon Lescaut' and Henze wrote a version of the story titled 'Boulevard Solitude'.

Answer: Antonio Salieri

Milhaud's 'La mere coupable', Massenet's 'Cherubin', and Corigliano's 'The Ghosts of Versailles' are all loosely based on the final play of Beaumarchais' trilogy. Salieri did set Beaumarchais once: his 'Tarare'.

Answer: Octavian, Der Rosenkavalier

Beethoven's Fidelio is a woman disguised as a man in order to rescue her falsely imprisoned {husband;} Mozart's Idamante and Meyerbeer's Urbain are trouser roles sung by {women;} Richard Strauss' Octavian is a trouser role sung by a woman who at one points also pretends to be the maiden Mariandel.

Answer: Samson et Dalila, Camille Saint-Saens

While Violetta, Thais, and Lula are involved in some form of prostitution, Dalila is merely the pawn of the High Priest of Dagon.

Answer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Mozart's spears two operatic divas in 'Der {Schauspieldirektor';} Adam's Chappelou is a coachman who is whisked off to sing at the Paris Opera in 'Le postillon de {longjumeau';} Puccini's Tosca is a diva who lives for art and for love. Korngold's Marietta, while singing one of the most sublime arias in the repertory, is a dancer by trade.

Answer: La straniera, Vincenzo Bellini

Donna Elvira, Donna Anna and Don Ottavio appear at the act I ball in 'Don {Giovanni';} the final act of 'Un ballo in maschera' takes place at a costume {ball;} Rosalinde appears at Prince Orlofsky's ball wearing a mask to avoid being recognized by her husband. Bellini's la Straniera wears a veil, rather than a mask, to hide her identity.

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

'Fernando Cortez' is an opera by Gasparo Spontini, Vasco da Gama figures in Giacomo Meyerbeer's 'L'Africaine', and Christopher Columbus is a character is operas by Alberto Franchetti, Darius Milhaus and Philip Glass. Ferdinand Magellan is the odd-man out.

Answer: Ferruccio Busoni

Gounod's 'Faust', Boito's 'Mefistofele' and Berlioz' 'La damnation de Faust' are all based on {Goethe;} Busoni's 'Doktor Faustus' was based on Christopher Marlowe's 'Doktor Faustus'.

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Monteverdi's 'Il coronazione di Poppea', Boito's 'Nerone' and Mascagni's 'Nerone' concern Roman emperor {Nero;} Mozart's 'La clemenza di Tito' concerns Roman emperor Titus.

Answer: Camille Saint-Saens

Salieri's 'Falstaff', Nicolai's 'Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor', and Vaughan William's 'Sir John in Love' are all based on Shakespeare's Falstaff, found in his plays 'The Merry Wives of Windsor and 'Henry IV'. Camille Saint-Saens did compose an opera on the life of another corpulent philanderer - Henry VIII.

Answer: Giulio Cesare, George Frideric Handel

The Berlioz is based on 'Much Ado about {Nothing';} the Wagner on 'Measure for {Measure';} the Goetz on 'The Taming of the Shrew'. While 'Julius Caesar' is a Shakespearean work, Handel's opera is not based upon it.

Answer: Twelfth Night, Modest Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky, with his life-long and destructive love of vodka, would have hardly had the personality for a Shakespearean comedy. The remaining three composers all considered their subjects for operatic treatment, Beethoven even composing some music for the witches in Macbeth which he later incorporated into his 'Ghost' piano trio.

Answer: Troilus and Cressida, William Walton

Purcell, Britten and Barber all used Shakespeare as a source for their operas, while Walton chose to use Geoffrey Chaucer as his source.

Answer: A Village Romeo and Juliet, Frederick Delius

Bellini, Gounod and Zandonai all used Shakespeare as source for their {work;} Delius based his opera on a story by Gottfried Keller (Romeo and Juliet do not appear as {characters;} their reference is in the title alone.)