Opera all' Inferno Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alceste

One would expect the virtuous Alceste, who offered her life to spare her husband's (and who was the subject of operas by Lully and Gluck) in this company, but she is oddly missing. On the other hand, Dante includes the vengeful Electra, whose story is told in Strauss' "Elektra" and who also makes a memorable appearance in Mozart's "Idomeneo" (perhaps he sympathized with her desire for revenge). Also included is Aeneas, though Dido (as we'll see) fares less well.

Their star-crossed love was the subject of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and the second half of Berlioz's "Les Troyens". Orpheus is also mentioned; his tragically brief marriage to Eurydice, and equally tragic attempt to reclaim her from Hades, provided the subject matter for Peri's "Eurydice" (the first surviving example of the operatic genre) Monteverdi's "Orfeo", Gluck's "Orfee et Eurydice", and Offenbach's "Orfee aux Enfers" (this last is a comic version of the story).

Another operatic title character seen in this circle is the tragic Lucrece (subject of an opera by Britten, as well as a one-woman mini-cantata by Handel).

Answer: Riccardo Zandonai

In his day, Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) was hailed as a second Puccini. Time has not validated that claim; of the composer's ouvre, only "Francesca da Rimini" (1914) has acheived any popularity (and even "Francesca" is largely a cult favorite, like Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvrer" and Giordano's "Fedora", usually revived to showcase the musical/dramatic gifts of a particular diva). "Francesca" has many points of interest: apart from the two major love duets, there are no real set pieces in the opera, nor is there any firm distinction between lyrical passages and recitative. Set to D'Annunzio's poetic text, the score displays the seamless lyricism characteristic of Wagnerian music-drama (though in markedly different style). In both musical style and dramatic content, it bears a marked resemblance to Montemezzi's "Amore dei Tre Re", which also concerns an adulterous affair and its tragic aftermath.

"Francesca da Rimini" has been a showcase for a number of distinguished singing actresses: Gilda dalla Rizza (a favourite of Puccini's) created the role, other notable interpreters have been Magda Olivero, Maria Caniglia, and Renata Scotto. The latter starred in a magnificent revival of the work at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 with Placido Domingo (a telecast of this production is available on DVD).

The story of Francesca da Rimini, who is married for political reasons to the unprepossessing Giancotto Malatesta, but falls in love with his handsome younger brother Paolo (who is sent to court Francesca in his brother's stead) has unmistakable echoes of the legend of Tristan and Isolde as well as Pelleas and Melisande. A similar plot device (a younger man courting a girl on behalf of an older man) was at the center of Sidney Howard's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1925 play "They Knew What They Wanted" (in which the story has a much happier denouement) which, in turn, was the basis of the Frank Loesser musical "The Most Happy Fella".

Answer: Tristan

Tristan was guilty of the double-whammy of tricking Isolde into marriage with his elderly uncle, King Marke (using methods not unlike those used to lure Francesca da Rimini into marriage with Giancotto Malatesta), and of subsequently betraying Marke by committing adultery with Isolde.

In the prose version of the story, dated 1240 (which may well have been Dante's principal source), Tristan at one point abandoned the quest for the Holy Grail to fly to his beloved's side. This version also has Tristan kill Isolde before dying himself: unable to heal her lover's mortal wound, Isolde, unable to face life without Tristan, begs him to kill her. With his dying strength, Tristan crushes her in an embrace; thus his final act is one of murder. Dante makes no mention of Isolde; perhaps her absence was part of Tristan's punishment?

Answer: Jocasta

Jocasta, of course, was the wife/mother of Oedipus, whom she married after he had murdered her husband. Upon discovering the truth, she committed suicide. Apparently, Dante felt that Jocasta had suffered enough; she is not depicted amongst the not-so-merry widows. The story of Oedipus and Jocasta was the subject of Stravinsky's great "Oedipus Rex".

Dido, on the other hand, is treated with far less sympathy by Dante than by Henry Purcell and, later, Hector Berlioz (the latter admitted that he had fallen love with the Carthagian queen). Dante does not refer to her by name, but relates with disapproval that she killed herself for love of Aeneas, forgetting her vow to remain faithful to her dead husband Sichaeus: "The next one, lo! Herself for love she slew/ And to Sichaeus' urn her faith dismissed."

Cleopatra, after the death of Julius Casear, entered into a scandalous affair with Marc Antony, which had catastrophic results for both. In the theater, both Shakespeare (in "Antony and Cleopatra") and John Dryden (in "All for Love") immortalized the unhappy pair. On the opera stage, Cleopatra's amour with Caesar was the subject of Handel's "Giulio Cesare" (another character from Handel's opera, the vengeful Sesto- son of the murdered Pompey- is encountered elsewhere in "L'Inferno") Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" was the basis for Samuel Barber's opera of the same name. Written for the grand opening of the new Metropolitan Opera house, Barber's opera proved to be as star-crossed an enterprise as the love of its two title characters, and suffered a fate almost as ignominious as the one Dante describes for Cleopatra. In fairness to Barber, the overblown production by director Franco Zeffirelli was partly to blame for the debacle. In recent years, the opera has been given under circumstances which allowed audiences to actually hear the music, and it has undergone a rehabilitation of sorts.

Semiramis was a semi-legendary queen of Assyria. According to legend, she married Ninus, the King of Babylon, shortly after the suicide of her first husband, the governor of Nineveh. Having persuaded Ninus to proclaim her "regent for a day", she used her 24 hours of absolute power to order his execution, upon which she assumed the throne. She took a long series of lovers but, fearful of being overthrown herself, she had each of them executed the following morning. She was eventually overthrown by her own son, Nicyas. Her story was the basis for Rossini's "Semiramide" which, revived in the 1960s, gave divas Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne something to sink their vocal cords into.

Answer: Les Vepres Siciliennes

Born in England, Guy was the nephew of King Henry III; along with his father and brothers, he fought against Henry in the disastrous Battle of Evesham. Guy's father and elder brother fell in this battle, and he vowed to take revenge. Imprisoned after the battle, he escaped to France and joined the service of Charles of Anjou, who appointed him Vicar General of Tuscany; eventually, he became Count of Nola. In 1271, Guy and his surviving brother Simon tracked down their cousin Henry of Almain (against whom they had fought at Evesham) and attacked him at prayer in the church of St. Silvestro in Viterbo. Despite Henry's pleas for mercy, the two men cut his throat to avenge the deaths of their father and brother. This double act of murder and sacrilege sent shock waves throughout Europe, in much the same way that the slaughter of Thomas Becket at Canterbury a century earlier had done (Shakespeare may have been alluding to this infamous crime in "Hamlet", when he has Laertes express the desire to "cut his [Hamlet's] throat i' the church" in revenge for Hamlet's murder of Polonius). Both brothers were excommunicated, and Guy died in prison in 1283 after being captured at the Battle of the Gulf of Naples (Scribe's libretto for Verdi's opera, which takes considerable historical liberties, has Monfort violently dispatched by the rebel Sicilians.

Dante refers to the Sicilian Vespers in Canto VIII of "Paradiso": "And the beautiful Trinacria . . . which would still await its kings, born from me of Charles and of Rudulph, if bad governing which always disturbs subjected peoples, had not moved Palermo to cry, 'Death, Death!'"

Answer: Jason

Jason is mentioned in two capacities by Dante: in "L'Inferno", he is punished for the ruthless and dishonest means he employed to obtain the Golden Fleece. He is also punished for his seduction, and ultimate betrayal, of both Medea and Hypsipyle, whom he had gotten pregnant and abandoned on the island of Lemnos. However Jason's more heroic and glorious qualities are put to metaphorical use in both the second and the last canto of Paradiso.

Although Jason's numerous misdeeds may have earned Dante's disapprobation, numerous authors, artists, and composers have found the filicide Medea to be more viscerally horrifying and, consequently, an irresistable subject. Charpentier's "Medee", with a libretto by the great French dramatist Corneille, premiered at the Academie Royale de Musique in 1693. It was a considerable success (Louis XIV attended several performances), and is described in the Grove Dictionary of Opera as "...perhaps the most important opera produced there [the Academie] in the decade after the death of Lully". Although Cherubini's opera on the same subject has been more frequently revived in the past century, Charpentier's version has had several highly succesful revivals in the past two decades.

Cherubini's "Medee" premiered in 1797 and was a great success in France and Germany, where it has been credited with having initiated the grand opera tradition in those countries. It was less successful in Italy, but it enjoyed a successful revival in Florence in 1953 under Vittorio Gui. This performance featured Maria Callas, in whom the title role found an ideal interpreter. Later that year, Callas created a sensation when she performed the role at La Scala under the baton of Leonard Bernstein (who had learned the score in just five days). A New York concert performance in 1955 featuring a young Eileen Farrell created a sensation, and launched Farrell on a distinguished operatic career. Other distinguished Medeas have included Magda Olivero and Leonie Rysanek.

Answer: No

The harlot Thais described by Dante was a courtesan of Alexandria, who was the mistress of Alexander the Great. Interestingly, Dante places her among the flatterers instead of among the lustful.

Massenet's opera "Thais" is based upon the novel of the same name by Anatole France which, in turn, is based on the legend of a third century courtesan of Alexandria. She was converted by a monk named Paphnutis, distributed her ill-gotten wealth to the poor, and entered a convent. Here, at Paphnutis' direction, she was placed in a locked cell and was fed bread and water through an opening in the cell's door. At this point, one imagines she had some second thoughts about her conversion but, under the circumstances, there was little she could do about it. After three years, Paphnutis decided that she had done sufficient penance for her sins and ordered her release. Not surprisingly, she was in failing health and died shortly after. Having undergone such an ordeal, one can only conclude that she is enjoying a well-deserved reward in Paradise, and in fact she was at one time venerated as a saint of the Catholic church (she has since been dropped from the calendar, not because of her shady past, but because of doubts about the veracity of the story)

Massenet's opera is a romanticized version of this legend, in which the title character is converted by an idealistic young monk named Athanael. After ensconcing her in the convent, Athanael realizes that he has fallen madly in love with her. He visits her at the convent and begs her to forget all of the pious gobbledygook he had earlier preached to her and to become his lover. Alas, he finds that, not only has he done too thorough a job of converting her, but that she is dying. After floating several high D flats, Thais expires, and Athanael collapses in despair. Curtain.

Answer: Gabriel Faure

Unlike Monteverdi's opera, whose libretto by Giacomo Badoaro features a large cast of characters, Faure's 1907 opera is predominantly a study of the loving and faithful Penelope. In one of the most beautiful passages of this too rarely performed opera, she sings of her longing for Ulysses' return and describes the roses that she had planted on the terrace overlooking the sea, so that their perfume might welcome him upon his return.

The scene in which she uncovers her famous loom also features the type of haunting writing for the harp that Faure alone was capable of. "Penelope" has enjoyed a few well-deserved revivals in recent years, and has been recorded by the celebrated soprano Jessye Norman.

Answer: Yes

Buoso Donati appears in the Eight Circle; he is one of five thieves known to the author. The other four are Cianci Donati- a relation of Buoso's, Agnello Brunelleschi (an ancestor to the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, designer of Florence's famous dome), Puccio the Lame, and Guercio of the Cavalcanti. Each of these is transformed into a serpent, with the exception of Puccio (one of Blake's celebrated illustrations depicts Buoso being attacked by one of his fellow thieves, in the form of a serpent).

Dante's wife Gemma was of the Donati family, hence his resentment of Schicci's crime; however he was not unaware of the dishonest means by which Buoso had attained his considerable wealth. In Puccini's opera, Buoso has willed his fortune to the monks of Santa Reparata (in reality, he died intestate). While impersonating Buoso, Schicchi wills the monks only a small pittance. When the notary questions this, Schicchi/Buoso explains that a large bequest to the church would cause people to speculate the he had amassed his fortune by dishonest means- a backhanded swipe at the dead man's reputation. It was a common practice for those who had amassed ill-gotten wealth to will much (or all) of their fortune to the church, as a way of, hopefully, making posthumous reparation. (Incidentally, Santa Reparata was the name of a saint, but it also, significantly, means "holy reparation").

Answer: I Capuleti ed i Montecchi

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were warring factions whose conflicts played out during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in Florence. The rivalry was triggered by a squabble between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire regarding who would control the investiture of church officials. The Guelphs supported the papacy, whereas the Ghibellines took the side of the Empire. There were some socio-economic issues at work as well; the Guelphs were principally members of the mercantile class, whereas the Ghibellines largely hailed from the landed gentry. In Canto VI of "Purgatorio", Dante identifies the Guelphs and Ghibellines as Capulets and Montagues; the family names featured in Shakespeare's play were actually those of warring families.

Bellini's 1830 opera "I Capuleti ed i Montecchi" is a retelling of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". The libretto by Felice Romani departs from Shakespeare's play in several respects. Romeo's bosom friend Mercutio (whose death at Tybalt's hands prompts Romeo's slaying of Tybalt and subsequent banishment) does not exist in Romani's libretto, nor does Juliet's suitor, the county Paris. Instead, we have Tebaldo, a composite of Tybalt and Paris, who seeks Giulietta's (Juliet's) hand, and who survives the opera. Romeo (a mezzo-soprano "trouser" role, sometimes performed by a lyric tenor) has already been banished at the outset of the opera for the killing of Capulet's son (Juliet's brother) in battle. In the opera's finale, Romeo survives after taking the poison long enough for a final duet with Juliet (the same occurs in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette"); after he dies, Juliet simply falls dead at his side, presumably from a broken heart (no "happy dagger").

Although Bellini's opera has been criticised as being insufficiently dramatic, it contains some of his loveliest music; notably Romeo's first act aria "Se Romeo uccide tuo figlio", Juliet's haunting "O quante volte", and Romeo's lament at Juliet's grave: "Deh! tu, bell'anima".