Opera Flashcards
A particular popular Italian duo that is affectionately referred to as “Cav & Pag” is scheduled to make an appearance in New York in early 2018, featuring Roberto Alagna. What is the full name of either “Cav” or “Pag”?
Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci
The controversial dark opera Death of Klinghoffer, which is based on the hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro by members of the Palestine Liberation Front and has been criticized as sympathetic to the terrorists, is the work of what American composer?
John Adams
What American soprano and opera superstar made her Metropolitan Opera debut portraying Countess Almaviva in Le nozze de Figaro in 1991 and, after some 70 performances there over two and a half decades, reportedly gave her final performance at the Met in May 2017 in what is perhaps her best-known role, the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (though those reports may prove to be inaccurate)?
Renee Fleming
In 1876, this composer opened an opera house in the Franconian town of Bayreuth.
Richard Wagner
In 2017, Soprano Audrey Luna hit the note known as A above this, a first in Metropolitan opera history.
High C
A 12-minute piece of music from this opera depicts Alpine dawn, a storm and the calm, and ends in a section called a galop.
William Tell
In Act I of this opera, a messenger says, “barbarous Ethiopians” have invaded and “are already marching on Thebes.”
Aida
According to his boastful servant Leporello, what Mozart character has had 640 girls in Italy, 231 in Germany, and 1,003 in Spain?
“Don Giovanni” is the Italian name for Don Juan, kind of like how “Papa Noel” and “Santa Claus” are the same person.
The “Bridal Chorus” (aka “Here Comes the Bride”), the march often played at weddings during the bride’s formal entrance, is from an 1850 opera by whom?
Richard Wagner
What operatic superstar was known simply as “La Divina” (or perhaps, in her parents’ native language, “Το Θείο”)?
Maria Callas
