Further Opera Summaries in Four Words Quiz

Answer: La Fanciulla del West

Yes, there's an opera about the American Old West. Minnie is a well-liked barmaid who's in love with Dick Johnson, a thief in hiding. When he's discovered at her place, sheriff Jack Rance (these names do have a good Western ring to them) agrees to play a poker match against Minnie. If she wins, he won't arrest Johnson. If Rance wins, she will submit to him.

The poker game ends Act II--there's still more conflict to resolve! This is, overall, a more upbeat opera than most Puccini ones. Despite taking place in the Old West, the libretto is in Italian.

The English title is "The Girl of the Golden West".

Answer: The Bartered Bride

Smetana wrote this comedic opera. Marenka wishes to marry Jenik, but her parents want to betroth her to Vasek, the son of a man called Micha. Micha tries to pay Jenik to renounce his love for Marenka, and he does, via contract stating that only a son of Micha can marry her. Guess who Jenik is...

Answer: Les Troyens

"The Aenead" is the source of this Berlioz opera about the Trojan War. Some of the major characters are Cassandra, whose warning about the Trojan Horse goes unheeded, Aeneas, and his lover Queen Dido. The short opera "Dido and Aeneas" by Purcell is exclusively about the two lovers. "Les Troyens" was first performed in its entirety over two decades after Berlioz's death.

Answer: Sadko

Rimsky-Korsakov composed this opera, which contains ballet and is divided into seven scenes rather than acts. It recounts the adventures of Sadko, a merchant and musician of Russian folk tales, who leaves his wife at home and travels about seeking his fortune. He ventures from the shores of lakes to an undersea kingdom, gaining a fortune and eventually returning to his wife.

Answer: Pagliacci

Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" is often paired with Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" as a double bill, as each one-act opera runs about 70 minutes. This opera probably started the trope of the killer clown. (Don't read on if you don't want the details.) Canio's wife is having an affair with another clown, so Canio murders her during the performance.

Answer: L'incoronazione di Poppea

This is Monteverdi's last opera. It details the events leading up to the coronation of Poppea, one of Emperor Nero's mistresses, and later, his second wife. Spoiler warning: history will show Poppea's victory as transitory, as she died a few years after the marriage. By some accounts, Nero kicked her to death.

In the original run, singers took on multiple roles: for instance, the roles of Virtue, Empress Ottavia, and Drusilla were meant to be sung by the same soprano. This is sometimes done today.

Answer: Wozzeck

Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" is made of fifteen scenes, each of which follows a different musical form: rhapsody, scherzo, fantasia and fugue, passacaglia, and so on. It is based on an unfinished drama about a psychologically-abused soldier who becomes jealous of a whore who bore him a child. Eventually, he kills her. Werner Herzog made a film based on the same source material called "Woyzeck".

Answer: Ariadne auf Naxos

A Richard Strauss opera, "Ariadne auf Naxos" premiered in 1912. A composer, known only as The Composer, has written an opera for a party where a comic dance group is also to perform. The dinner runs too long, and since fireworks must start at a specific time, the man giving the party demands that the opera and dancing perform at the same time, since he has already paid for both entertainments. So, serious opera clashes with burlesque dancing.

Answer: Parsifal

At the start of Wagner's last opera, Parsifal is a lot like Siegfried from "Der Ring": he's a naive, strong youth who grew up in the woods and never knew his father. Because he's a "pure fool", he's just the right person to seek the holy spear and heal King Amfortas...if Klingsor and Kundry don't corrupt him first.

In mythology, Parsifal is the father of Lohengrin, the hero of another Wagner opera.

Answer: Rigoletto

Rigoletto is a court jester who accidentally helps kidnap his own daughter for a libertine, the Duke of Mantua. Rigoletto intends to get revenge by drowning someone who he thinks is the Duke, but it's not him in the bag...

Verdi's "Rigoletto" contains one of the most famous arias in opera, "La donna e mobile", or "Woman is Fickle", the hypocrisy being that the Duke who sings it is the fickle one.