The Bright Cecilia Opera Quiz

[sospiro]

Originally Posted by ReinerTorheit

2) Mention Verdi operas which were written as commissions for premiere abroad?

I masnadieri which was commissioned for London

La forza del destino which was commissioned for St Petersburg

Originally Posted by ReinerTorheit

4) At the premiere of NABUCCO, the audience rose from their seats ecstatically and demanded an encore of a famous choral number from the opera? Which piece did they want?

Va’ pensiero

In 2011 Riccardo Muti lead an encore sung by the audience to appeal against cuts to arts funding.

[ReinerTorheit]

Originally Posted by sospiro

Va’ pensiero

Aha, sadly you've fallen in the trap carefully set for you there

Actually it was the other one! And you'll now tell which one that is, to gain the point

[sospiro]

Originally Posted by ReinerTorheit

Aha, sadly you've fallen in the trap carefully set for you there

Actually it was the other one! And you'll now tell which one that is, to gain the point

And as a footnote to the competition, does anyone know what & where this is? I expect ReinerTorheit to know!

[ReinerTorheit]

Ulllp! I'm stumped

Maybe someone else can help me out here?

[Liberty]

Originally Posted by sospiro

I masnadieri which was commissioned for London

La forza del destino which was commissioned for St Petersburg




Va’ pensiero

In 2011 Riccardo Muti lead an encore sung by the audience to appeal against cuts to arts funding.

This is very moving. We can all relate to the plight of the Italian people.

[ReinerTorheit]

Originally Posted by sospiro

I expect ReinerTorheit to know!

I do know now... but only because I had a very helpful PM with the answer

It's the Casa Verdi - as I now realise

[ReinerTorheit]

Time for a new round!

We move on to the genre of Opera Lyrique - the loose title that was given to French opera after around 1850, when the stricter and more pompous genre of "Grand Opera" was already on the wane. (We might look at Grand Opera in another question a bit later?)

1) Most of us know Handel's music that announced the Arrival Of The Queen of Sheba. But the same lady had an entire opera dedicated to her - what's the opera, and who wrote it? (It's a piece with half a foot at least in the Grand Opera tradition).

2) Considering that Opera Lyrique was, in many ways, a conscious attempt by French composers to put distance between themselves and Wagner, it's somewhat surprising that one of the most successful of all of these operas had a libretto based on Goethe. Which was it?

3) One of the leading lights of the Opera Lyrique married his former tutor's daughter. His new mother-in-law was furious when she heard of their liaison, calling her new son-in-law "anti-religious, penniless, and a left-winger". He went on to write one of the three most-performed operas in history - but who was his bride?

4) Anecdotes cluster around the name of another star of the Opera Lyrique, whose crusty temperament and difficult personality led him into all kinds of conflicts. He's said to have walked out of the premiere of THE RITE OF SPRING "because of the misuse of the bassoon". On another occasion he told friends he was going to Paris "to spread nasty rumours about PELLEAS ET MELISANDE". His own operas include one about the life of a famous English monarch. Who was he?

5) Our last question is a French opera that has a reputation for being fiercesomely hard to stage and sing. Perhaps a concert performance would be easier? And that could be reason it appears in the program of this years Proms Festival in London

[Liberty]

2. Massenet "Werther"

[ReinerTorheit]

Originally Posted by Liberty

2. Massenet "Werther"

[sospiro]

5) Our last question is a French opera that has a reputation for being fiercesomely hard to stage and sing. Perhaps a concert performance would be easier? And that could be reason it appears in the program of this years Proms Festival in London

Les Troyens