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Opera Trivia

Select the correct answer from among the choices given.

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I’m not sure how much of an appetite there is for opera-themed quizzes, so please leave a comment if you want more.
Quiz by arjaygee
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Last updated: May 18, 2024
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First submittedAugust 18, 2023
Times taken28
Average score46.7%
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1. Which opera does NOT have a principal character named Elvira?
Ernani
La favorita
I puritani
Don Giovanni
2. What is the name of Cio-Cio-San’s maid in Madama Butterfly?
Yamaha
Harley
Kawasaki
Suzuki
3. Which is an opera composed by Gioacchino Rossini?
Il barbiere di Siviglia
Assedio di Firenze
Le nozze di Figaro
La mère coupable
4. Where does the opera Norma take place?
The outskirts of the city of Rome
Gaul
An unspecified location in Scandinavia
Anglo-Saxon England
5. Which character sings «Nessun dorma» in the final act of Turandot?
Rodolfo
Cavaradossi
Rinuccio
Calaf
6. Which Valkyrie role did Wagner write for a contralto?
Ortlinde
Waltraute
Schwertleite
Roßweiße
7. Which of the following did NOT compose an operatic retelling of the Faust legend?
Hector Berlioz
Ferruccio Busoni
Charles Gounod
Robert Schumann
Berlioz: La damnation de Faust; Busoni: Doktor Faust; Gounod: Faust.
8. John Adams (1947- ) composed which opera?
Antony and Cleopatra
Maria Golovin
The Prodigal Son
The Ice Break
Samuel Barber composed an opera (arguably better known) of the same name.
9. Which musical number can you hear in a standard performance of Carmen?
The Macarena
The Flower Duet
The Bell Song
The Toreador Song
Escamillo sings «Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre» (The Toreador Song) in Act II.
10. In an 1831 Bellini opera, one of the principal characters sings an aria cantabile while she is …
Dying
Offstage
Asleep
Drunk
Amina, the main protagonist in La sonnambula is sleepwalking when she sings «Ah, non credea mirarti». Luckily, she wakes up in time to sing the cabaletta «Ah, non giunge».
11. Carlisle Floyd’s opera Susannah takes place in which U.S. state?
Oklahoma
Kentucky
Tennessee
North Carolina
12. The Kitchen Boy in Dvořák’s Rusalka is usually performed by …
A non-speaking actor
A mezzo-soprano
A lyric tenor
A treble
13. Which of the following is NOT known to have composed an opera based on one of Shakespeare’s plays?
Ottorino Respighi
Ambroise Thomas
Benjamin Britten
Giuseppe Verdi
Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Thomas: Hamlet; Verdi: Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff.
14. In this one-act opera, a troubled woman discloses (during a telephone conversation) her recent suicide attempt.
La voix humaine (Francis Poulenc)
Night (Lorenzo Ferrero)
The Telephone (Gian Carlo Menotti)
Sancta Susanna (Paul Hindemith)
15. Richard Wagner had a son who was also an opera composer. What was the son’s name?
Walther Wagner
Siegfried Wagner
Sigmund Wagner
Tristan Wagner
2 Comments
+1
Level 85
Sep 20, 2023
Cool first quiz, but hard!!! I only got four right. Also try Famous Operas!
+1
Level 66
Sep 20, 2023
Thank you. I had a lot of fun putting this together, but I thought it had been removed from the site because it had so few takers. Last time I checked, it wasn’t showing up in the search.

How did you come across it?