Russian Opera Potpourri Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Queen of Spades

"The Queen of Spades" is based on an entirely fictional short story by Pushkin. "Prince Igor" is based on the wars of the old Rus' city states with the Tatar invaders, "Boris Godunov" is based on the historical reign of Tsar Boris (although there is a Pushkin play in between,) and "Khovanschina" is based on the political and religious struggles in the time of Peter the Great.

Answer: Chemistry Professor

Borodin was a chemistry professor, although he is much better known to us as a composer. He wrote "Prince Igor" primarily when he was too sick to lecture, which makes one take another look at one's own achievements...

Answer: Three cards that allowed one always to win at gambling

The secret of the three cards is the central theme of the opera. The old woman learned it by providing, er, favours to Count St. Germain in her days of youth and beauty, and has told the secret twice so far: once to her husband and once to a "handsome youth." She is destined by prophecy to reveal the secret once more, to one who "comes in passionate love, who will take the secret by force." German, with a bit of encouragement from his friends, convinces himself that he is the third who will learn the secret from her.

She gets her revenge by telling him "Three, Seven, Ace." When he makes use of the knowledge, the three and seven win as predicted, but then instead of the ace that he bets on, he is dealt the Queen of Spades-that was the real third card, and also coincidentally the symbol of the old lady.

He kills himself in despair, so she gets her own back in the end!

Answer: That Boris is guilty of the murder of Prince Dmitri, son of Ivan the Terrible

Mussorgsky's libretto is based on the play "Boris Godunov" by Pushkin. The play assumes that Boris is guilty of the murder of Prince Dmitri, and thus in addition to dealing with the political turmoil of his day, he was also labouring under a burden of guilt that eventually destroys him. For the record, historically, Boris is probably innocent of the murder.

Theories on the demise of Dmitri include that he died during an epileptic fit (never have a fit with a knife in your hand) or that his father, Ivan the Terrible, killed him in a fit of rage as he did his older son. (Never be around while your father has a fit with a knife in his hand, especially if he is a mad Tsar.) But at any rate, Pushkin and Mussorgsky saw that fingering Boris for the murder would make a cracking good tale, and apparently they were right.

Answer: Whether it is ethical for him to escape when he is an honoured guest of the Khan

Khan Konchak treated Igor like an honoured guest, and even offered him a slave girl or two to warm him up at night. It was all quite civilized, really. However, Igor felt a bit of trepidation at leaving this gentleman's club in the dead of night without paying the bill, since after all he was a prisoner and the Khan would expect him to behave like one.

The Khan's daughter was infatuated with Igor's son Vladimir, which caused no end of problems. Igor loved his wife, Yaroslavna, and was eager to return to her.

His men finally convince him that he can do more good by legging it back to Putivl and saving his wife and citizens from further ravages from the invaders (not to mention his brother-in-law, Prince Vladimir, whom he had left in charge against his better judgement) than by doing the "honourable" thing by staying put, and off he goes (but not before getting in a really cracking aria.)

Answer: The overture, known as "Daybreak on the Moskva River"

"Khovanschina" has as its subject the rebellion of the Old Believers, who were the Russian Orthodox who refused to accept the religious reforms of Peter the Great. The title means something like "The Khovansky Affair", and refers to one of the leading Old Believer families. As a matter of historical interest, the Old Believers persisted into the 20th century and an isolated colony of them was discovered in forests near Moscow as late as the 1970s, which ought to give an idea of how deep and dark the forests near Moscow really are.

The other 3 works named were written as stand-alone works and are not part of an opera. "Night on Bald Mountain," a tone poem, and the "Songs and Dances of Death," a song cycle, are by Mussorgsky; whereas "March Slav" is by Tchaikovsky.

Answer: The censors would not allow it to be performed as it was because there was no female lead

Believe it or not, the censors told Mussorgsky he had to put in a female lead. Mussorgsky did it, and the Polish scene contains some excellent music, but it is in marked contrast to the rest of the opera... the Polish scene is much more like a conventional Italian or French opera than the rather dark Russian stuff that the rest of it consists of. The opera can and has been performed without the Polish scene... the dramatic story seems tighter and more focused without it, although one does miss out on all that lovely music!

One more thing about Mussorgsky: he paid much attention to the rhythm of words in his music. For a singer, it's much more necessary to understand word-for-word what is happening when singing Mussorgsky than most other 19th century Russian composers, e.g., Tchaikovsky. Much 20th century Russian music follows Mussorgsky's lead and places an emphasis on speech patterns... making it absolutely lovely in Russian but presenting many problems for the singer who wants to sing in translation... or indeed the translator who wishes to make a singable translation.

Answer: The Holy Fool

If the opera is performed in this order, forgoing the operatic convention of the big death scene of the title character at the end, some delicious irony emerges. The revolutionary crowd in the forest scene is calling for the death of Boris, but he is already dead.

The final song in the forest scene is the fool's lament, which ends, "Weep, weep, Russian people, poor, hungry people." A fitting end, for with the demise of Boris the country was plunged into chaos with no clear succession, a Time of Troubles from which it would not emerge until 7 years later with the ascent of the first Romanov to the throne in 1613-a dynasty that would last for a little more than 300 years.

Answer: Ivan Susanin

You never know with those wacky Soviets, do you? They didn't go too over the top with this one; they just called it "Ivan Susanin" after the peasant who is the hero of the opera. He led the Polish army into the forest after having promised to lead them to where the Romanov armies were camped, and thus destroyed them. Of course they killed him once they figured out what had happened (but not before he'd got in a really cracking aria.) Ivan Susanin was a real historical character, and until the Communist Revolution his descendants had a place of honour at the royal Christmas table every year.

They were still peasants, though; they weren't rewarded with anything other than a standing dinner invitation for their trouble. I suppose that's why the Soviets thought it was OK to keep the opera in circulation with a mere title change from WHY the peasant hero made a sacrifice (that is, for the Tsar) to simply his name.

Answer: To keep themselves out of trouble

They had been hanging around with the Prince's brother-in-law, Prince Vladimir, who had been left in charge of the city and had, to say the least, abused the privilege. When they see Prince Igor arriving, they realise that the people would finger them as being cronies of Vladimir and they would be in big trouble. They discuss between themselves how to get out of this tight spot. They reject running into the forest, as rough living wouldn't suit them, and finally settle on the plan of announcing the Prince's arrival to the city and denying all knowledge of the two blokes, who happen to resemble them, who were helping Prince Vladimir on his spree. It seems to have worked, since everyone was so happy to see Igor return that they didn't pursue the matter too deeply.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoyed the quiz!