Q 01/05

Which Elvis Presley number one was set to the tune of the Neapolitan standard 'O sole mio?

A) Surrender

B) Love Me Tender

C) It's Now or Never

D) Can't Help Falling in Love

Answer · why

C) It's Now or Never

It's Now or Never sold some 20 million copies and became his biggest international single; a 1949 Tony Martin record using the same melody inspired hi...

Q 02/05

Which Venetian composer of The Four Seasons was nicknamed the Red Priest for the colour of his hair?

A) Antonio Vivaldi

B) Tomaso Albinoni

C) Arcangelo Corelli

D) Domenico Scarlatti

Answer · why

A) Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi was ordained at 25 and wrote much of his music for the all-female ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venice home for abandoned ch...

Q 03/05

Which Domenico Modugno hit, officially titled Nel blu, dipinto di blu, won the first Grammy for Record of the Year?

A) Azzurro

B) Volare

C) Marina

D) Piove

Answer · why

B) Volare

Volare, meaning to fly, also took Song of the Year at that first Grammy ceremony in 1959, despite finishing only third at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Q 04/05

Which Roman composer scored Sergio Leone's westerns, including the howling theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

A) Henry Mancini

B) Riz Ortolani

C) Armando Trovajoli

D) Ennio Morricone

Answer · why

D) Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone had been Leone's schoolmate as a boy, and after five losing nominations he finally won a competitive Oscar for The Hateful Eight.

Q 05/05

Which 14-year-old prodigy is said to have written out Allegri's guarded Miserere from memory after hearing it in Rome?

A) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

B) Ludwig van Beethoven

C) Franz Schubert

D) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Answer · why

A) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart heard the piece on a 1770 visit, and the tale rests on a letter from his father Leopold; the Pope soon awarded the boy the Ord...