Quiz Answers September 1997 Question:
(Suggested by the members of our Wig and Makeup Department.) Many operatic plots involve heroines who are seduced (Santuzza), having affairs (Carmen) or having children while being married (Mélisande) or unmarried (Norma). Many of them die at the final curtain.
Name a leading female operatic character in a dramatic (not comic) opera, who is alive AND a virgin at the end of the opera. Repeat: Comedies do not count. Answer: Certified virgins:
- Turandot (most of the entries included her)
- Queen Elizabeth I (Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda, Gloriana)
- Brünnhilde (Die Walküre and Siegfried only)
- Elisabeth (Tannhäuser)
Probable virgins:
- Elena (I Vespri Siciliani)
- Elvira (Ernani)
- Elvira (I Puritani)
- Mathilde (Guillaume Tell)
- Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Aulide, Tauride)
- Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito)
- Amelia (Simon Boccanegra)
- Agathe (Der Freischütz)
- Arabella
- Susannah
Maybe; maybe not:
- Donna Anna (Don Giovanni)
- Aida, Amneris (Aida)
- Minnie (La Fanciulla Del West)
August 1997 Question:
Two operas in the San Francisco Opera 1997-98 season include situations in which a male character has to wear a womanās clothes. In one, the actual dressing takes place on stage. In the other, the dressing is only talked about. Name the two operas and each of the two characters involved. Answer: Tosca - Angelotti, who has escaped from jail, talks with Cavaradossi about wearing female clothes left by Angelottiās sister as a help in his escape. Le Nozze di Figaro - The page Cherubino is dressed in female clothes on stage by Susanna and the Countess. July 1997 Question:
Thomas Hampson sang three leading roles at the San Francisco Opera between 1990 and 1996. They were based on classic works by Homer, Shakespeare and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Name all three operas. Answer: Homer, Odyssey
(Monteverdi, Il Ritorno dāUlisse in Patria) Shakespeare, Hamlet
(Thomas, Hamlet) Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
(Susa/Littell, The Dangerous Liaisons) |
