50 Fun Facts About Opera

The Italian word 'opera' literally means what?

It comes from the Latin opera, which is also the plural of opus.

Jacopo Peri's Dafne, generally considered the first opera, was produced in which city around 1598?

It grew out of the Camerata de' Bardi, a circle of humanists trying to revive Greek drama, and the music is now lost.

Which Monteverdi work of 1607 is the earliest opera still regularly performed?

It was written for the Gonzaga court at Mantua; Peri's Euridice of 1600 survives but is rarely staged.

The world's first public opera house, the Teatro San Cassiano, opened in 1637 in which city?

It was the first to admit a paying audience, launching the idea of an opera 'season' during Carnival.

What is the text of an opera called?

The word means 'little book'; Wagner was unusual in writing his own.

Which term describes the florid early-19th-century style of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti?

Literally 'beautiful singing', it demanded supreme agility and pitch control from performers.

Verismo opera was introduced by Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and which Leoncavallo opera?

The two short works are so often paired on a double bill that opera fans call the evening 'Cav and Pag'.

A Singspiel is a German form of opera that includes what?

Mozart's The Magic Flute and The Abduction from the Seraglio are the most famous examples.

The high male voice of the opera seria hero was usually written for which kind of singer?

Castration before puberty stopped the larynx from changing; today the roles are often taken by countertenors or women.

For which melancholy monarch did Farinelli sing nightly recitals for nearly a decade?

Queen Elisabeth Farnese hoped his voice would cure the king's depression; Farinelli's influence grew further under Ferdinand VI.

Whose 1760s 'reform' operas, starting with Orfeo ed Euridice, reacted against opera seria?

He aimed for a 'beautiful simplicity' and directly influenced Mozart, Weber and Wagner.

Who wrote the libretti for The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte?

The Venetian priest-turned-poet later emigrated to America and taught Italian at Columbia.

Mozart's opera about the punished rake premiered in 1787 in which city?

It opened at what is now the Estates Theatre; Mozart listed it in his own catalogue simply as an opera buffa.

The Magic Flute premiered in Vienna in September 1791, how long before Mozart's death?

The bird-catcher Papageno was written for the librettist Emanuel Schikaneder's own theatre troupe.

The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro are based on plays by which French writer?

Rossini's opera covers the first play in the trilogy and Mozart's the second, though Mozart wrote his 30 years earlier.

The famous overture to The Barber of Seville was actually what?

Rossini reportedly wrote the whole opera in under three weeks, so the overture contains none of its actual themes.

The finale of which Rossini overture became the theme of The Lone Ranger?

The 1829 opera was the last of Rossini's 39; he then went into semi-retirement at 37.

The chorus 'Va, pensiero' comes from which early Verdi opera and became an anthem of Italian unification?

Verdi became such a symbol of the Risorgimento that his name doubled as a patriotic acronym.

Rigoletto, based on a Victor Hugo play, premiered in 1851 at which Venetian theatre?

Austrian censors caused serious problems first; the working title had been La maledizione, The Curse.

Verdi's Aida had its premiere in 1871 in which city?

It was commissioned by the Khedivial Opera House; Verdi had earlier declined to write a piece celebrating the Suez Canal.

Verdi's last two operas, Otello and Falstaff, are both based on the works of which writer?

Falstaff was premiered when the composer was 79 and is a comedy, a rarity in his output.

Wagner's term for his ideal fusion of music, poetry and painting into a 'complete work of art' was what?

In pursuit of it he abolished the distinction between aria and recitative in favour of 'endless melody'.

How many separate music dramas make up Wagner's Ring cycle?

The cycle runs about 15 hours over four evenings, ending with the Twilight of the Gods.

Wagner built his own festival theatre, dedicated to his works, in which German town?

Ludwig II of Bavaria granted 100,000 thaler in 1874 to get it built; the first festival opened in 1876 with the complete Ring.

Bizet's Carmen scandalised its first audiences at which Paris house in March 1875?

Bizet died after the 33rd performance, never knowing it would become one of the most performed operas of all.

In Carmen, Don José loses the heroine to Escamillo, who has what profession?

His famous 'Toreador Song' comes in act 2; the story is drawn from a novella by Prosper Mérimée.

La bohème premiered in Turin in 1896 under a 28-year-old conductor who later recorded it. Who?

His 1946 radio broadcast is the only recording of a Puccini opera led by its original conductor.

Which musicologist famously dismissed Tosca as a 'shabby little shocker'?

The opera premiered in Rome in January 1900, delayed a day for fear of political unrest.

Madama Butterfly's original two-act version was a fiasco at its 1904 premiere at which house?

Puccini withdrew it, split the second act in two with the Humming Chorus as a bridge, and found success in Brescia three months later.

Puccini died in 1924 leaving which opera unfinished?

Franco Alfano completed the score and it premiered in April 1926, about a year and a half after Puccini's death.

'Nessun dorma' is sung by which character?

He must answer three riddles to win the princess or lose his head, and sings that he will triumph.

Pavarotti's 'Nessun dorma' became a worldwide hit after it was used for which event in 1990?

His single reached number 2 in the UK; his very last performance of the aria was at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The first Three Tenors concert in July 1990 was held at which ancient Roman site?

Staged the night before the World Cup final, it raised money for José Carreras's leukemia foundation and became the best-selling classical album ever.

Pavarotti's 1972 Met breakthrough in La fille du régiment involved hitting how many high Cs in one aria?

He took seventeen curtain calls that night and earned the nickname 'King of the High Cs'.

Maria Callas, hailed as 'La Divina', was born in which city?

Raised in Astoria, Queens, by Greek immigrant parents, she moved to Greece as a teenager; her ashes were scattered in the Aegean.

Callas's love affair with which Greek shipping tycoon dominated the gossip pages?

His wife Tina divorced him over the affair; he later married Jacqueline Kennedy instead.

Australian soprano Joan Sutherland was known by which Italian nickname?

She married conductor Richard Bonynge in 1954 and helped revive the florid early-19th-century repertoire.

Which Neapolitan tenor was the first international recording star, with about 250 records from 1902 to 1920?

He was the most celebrated singer ever to appear at the old Metropolitan Opera on 39th Street.

Jenny Lind, the 'Swedish Nightingale', toured America in 1850 at the invitation of which showman?

She earned more than $350,000 and gave most of it to charities, chiefly free schools in Sweden.

The season at Milan's great opera house traditionally opens on 7 December, the feast day of which saint?

He is Milan's patron; the house itself opened in 1778 with a Salieri opera on the site of a demolished church.

The Metropolitan Opera opened in 1883 with which opera, starring Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson?

The company moved from its 'Old Met' at 39th and Broadway to Lincoln Center in 1966.

The Met's first national radio broadcast, on Christmas Day 1931, was of which opera?

The NBC contract was signed to replace donations that had dried up in the Depression.

The Palais Garnier in Paris was built at the behest of which ruler?

Its opulence and underground cistern inspired Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera; Chagall repainted the ceiling in 1964.

The Vienna State Opera opened in 1869 with a performance of which opera?

Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Sissi attended; the house also hosts the annual Vienna Opera Ball.

The Sydney Opera House was designed by an architect from which country?

Jørn Utzon won the 1957 competition but resigned before the building was finished; Queen Elizabeth II opened it in 1973.

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which he called a 'folk opera', is set in the slums of which city?

Gershwin and DuBose Heyward visited the author's native South Carolina in 1934 while working on it; 'Summertime' became a standard.

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, premiered in 1945, is based on a poem by which writer?

The fictional Borough resembles Aldeburgh in Suffolk, Britten's home; the orchestral Sea Interludes are often played on their own.

Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach runs about five hours with no intermission. What may the audience do?

The 1976 work, created with Robert Wilson, has no conventional plot at all.

John Adams's opera Nixon in China premiered in 1987 in which US city?

Peter Sellars proposed the idea in 1983 and directed the premiere; Alice Goodman wrote the text.

The 1957 cartoon What's Opera, Doc? has Elmer Fudd singing 'Kill the wabbit' to the tune of what?

Chuck Jones's Wagner parody was added to the National Film Registry in 1992.