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Operatic Donkey Trivia Quiz

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Equus africanus asinus, i.e. donkeys. I like donkeys. I admire donkeys. So if you catch wind of a rumor that certain opera characters bear a resemblance to derogatory donkey stereotypes -- you didn't hear it from me.

A multiple-choice quiz by vairagya. Estimated time: 7 mins.

Author
vairagya

Time
7 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
397,925

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
317

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. What a donkey I turned out to be! First I let the corrupt police chief exploit my jealous suspicions about my painter boyfriend and an escaped prisoner's pretty sister. Then I thought I'd cleverly secure a fake execution for said boyfriend by pretending to agree to ... um, relations ... with said police chief. Who am I?
Hint

Tosca in "Tosca"

Marchesa Attavanti in "Tosca"

Spoletta in "Tosca"

Sacristan in "Tosca"

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Question 2 of 10

2. You wanna talk donkeys? I probably should have thought twice about leasing my garret to four bohemian lads with questionable means of support. But the last time I tried to collect the rent from them, not only did they get me drunk, they then hinted they'd seen me out and about with women. Then I had to go and blab that I'm a married man! Those incorrigibles feigned shock, and kicked me out of my own garret without a cent of rent money. Who am I? Hint

Lul� in "La Boh�me"

Lorito in "La Boh�me"

Benoit in "La Boh�me"

Alcindoro in "La Boh�me"

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Question 3 of 10

3. Do you get the feeling this uppity Chinese princess is making donkeys of us? For about 70,000 centuries things have gone pretty smoothly for us government ministers. We could count on peaceful holidays at our lakeside villas, and all that. Now she comes along, and it's just death all over the place, day in, day out -- and she makes us facilitate this mess. Three gong strokes here, three riddles there, and countless executions of big-name princes who couldn't get the right answers and thereby the girl. Boring!!! Who are we? Hint

Ping, Pang, and Pong in "Turandot"

Altoum and The Executioner in "Turandot"

Timur and Li� in "Turandot"

Calaf and The Prince of Persia in "Turandot"

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Question 4 of 10

4. I'm such a donkey that I could just kick myself! I was so keen to get revenge on the duke for humiliating me routinely at court that I even let myself be blindfolded for what I thought was a prank against him. Then I found out it wasn't one of the duke's girlfriends who was being kidnapped, but my own daughter. Now I was really steamed, and set about arranging the duke's murder, but again my daughter ended up paying the price. Who am I? Hint

Monterone in "Rigoletto"

Rigoletto in "Rigoletto"

Ceprano in "Rigoletto"

Sparafucile in "Rigoletto"

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Question 5 of 10

5. My master makes a donkey of me so often, it's a wonder my ears aren't long and floppy! He's forever forcing me to aid and abet him in his dastardly lady-chasing schemes. I did try to warn one of the ladies off by showing her a catalog of his successful seductions. Would you believe he even made me exchange clothes with him to up his chances of another conquest? But frankly, inviting ghosts to dinner on his behalf has got to be the deal-breaker! Who am I? Hint

Ottavio in "Don Giovanni"

Masetto in "Don Giovanni"

Commendatore in "Don Giovanni"

Leporello in "Don Giovanni"

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Question 6 of 10

6. Look, I don't go around in a donkey costume -- I prefer bird costumes. Hey, I'm a bird-catcher, not a donkey-catcher, so what's your point? Oh, just because I got pressured into accompanying some princely guy on an uber-dangerous quest to rescue a maiden in distress? Or because my fondness for chattering along the way kept ending up with sorceresses literally putting a lock on my mouth? Maybe it was how all those nutty trials and ordeals, not to mention my big zero in the girlfriend department, led me to seriously consider suicide. Who am I? Hint

Papageno in "The Magic Flute"

Monostatos in "The Magic Flte"

Sarastro in "The Magic Flute"

Tamino in "The Magic Flute"

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Question 7 of 10

7. Don't think I can't see that my entire household wants to make me look like a donkey. What, I can't help myself to my wife's maid's virginity on her wedding night? And haven't I put a stopper on my page's raging hormones by assigning him to a stint in my regiment? Now I just have to get rid of that interfering barber -- never mind how instrumental he once was in making my marriage possible. Who am I? Hint

Antonio in "The Marriage of Figaro"

Cherubino in "The Marriage of Figaro"

Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro"

Curzio in "The Marriage of Figaro"

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Question 8 of 10

8. Just because I'm an elderly gentleman with a pretty (and wealthy!) young ward I happen to have matrimonial designs on, you needn't look at me like I'm some kind of donkey. What could go wrong? You say I could face serious competition from a count, an impoverished student, a soldier in search of lodging, and a substitute music teacher? You might as well suggest they're going to get at my ward as one and the same person! HA! Who am I? Hint

Fiorello in "The Barber of Seville"

Ambrogio in "The Barber of Seville"

Basilio in "The Barber of Seville"

Bartolo in "The Barber of Seville"

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Question 9 of 10

9. Before you go around calling me a donkey, just consider the facts. I'm madly in love with this seemingly unattainable village girl who "reads, studies, learns / there's nothing she doesn't know", as my little song about her goes. Me ... not so much, but never mind that. Trust me, I've got a plan. This traveling doctor is passing through town and bless him, he's just sold me a magic elixir guaranteed to turn things around for me in the romance department. No, I didn't check his credentials. Only a donkey would need to do that! Who am I? Hint

Giannetta in "The Elixir of Love"

Belcore in "The Elixir of Love"

Nemorino in "The Elixir of Love"

Dulcamara in "The Elixir of Love"

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Question 10 of 10

10. People are so irritating when they mispronounce "dandy" and make it sound like "donkey". Don't they know that dandyism was the height of fashion during the Romantic Period? So when my young neighbor girl out in the Russian countryside conceived this major crush on me, of course my dandyistic commitment to nonchalance, a show of boredom, and the glorification of self put a quick stop to that, and I sent her offer of true love on its way. Oh, just incidentally, I then provoked her sister's fianc� into a duel with me, and he ... didn't win. Much later on, I've run into the kid again in St. Petersburg, now married, and what the heck, maybe I'll try taking her up on that offer after all. Why are you still mispronouncing that word? And who am I? Hint

Onegin in "Eugene Onegin"

Triquet in "Eugene Onegin"

Gremin in "Eugene Onegin"

Lensky in "Eugene Onegin"

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Tosca in "Tosca"

Giacomo Puccini was fond of inserting touches of authentic "local color" into his opera music. "Tosca" is set entirely in the city of Rome, at a time when the surrounding countryside was not so far away. Puccini added a delightful decoration to the start of Act III in the form of a short love song sung offstage by a shepherd boy, in the local Roman dialect of Italian.

In the instrumentation for it you can hear sounds of sheep's bells followed by church bells.

Answer: Benoit in "La Boh�me"

Scholars of Giacomo Puccini's operas have long puzzled over the question of why most of them feature a female who is destroyed in one way or another by the end of the tale. Mim� in "La Boh�me" dies of tuberculosis. Tosca in "Tosca", Butterfly in "Madame Butterfly", and Li� in "Turandot" all commit suicide.

Some suggest Puccini may have been trying to work out feelings of guilt about his own interactions with the opposite sex in real life.

Answer: Ping, Pang, and Pong in "Turandot"

Giacomo Puccini wrote the roles of Ping, Pang, and Pong to be sung by two tenors and a baritone. They have an extended trio in Act II, Scene 1, known as "Ol�, Pang" (Hey, Pang). It is a thrilling experience to hear how Puccini builds and builds the polyphonic lyricism of this trio to an intense climax, where the three ministers sing (in Italian):

"Farewell, love!
Farewell, pedigree!
Farewell, divine ancestry!
China is finished!"

Answer: Rigoletto in "Rigoletto"

During the time Giuseppe Verdi was composing "Rigoletto" (1850-1851), northern Italy was under direct military control of Austria. (This was prior to the unification of Italy.) The Austrian censors took a very dim view of any artistic endeavor that would portray a powerful ruler in a negative way, even the fictional Duke of Mantua in "Rigoletto". Verdi and his librettist had many precarious struggles with the censors before the triumphant premiere of this masterpiece in Venice in 1851.

Answer: Leporello in "Don Giovanni"

Wolfgang Mozart's librettist for "Don Giovanni" was Lorenzo Da Ponte, a native of Italy's Veneto region. Da Ponte appears to have had much in common with the fictional Don Juan. Both were viewed as rakes, vile seducers, dissolute. Da Ponte was an ordained Catholic priest, yet had a mistress and two children by her during one ecclesiastical tenure. Eventually he was banned from Venice.

There were numerous other intrigues, but he somehow found time to collaborate with Mozart and produce the librettos for three of Mozart's most successful operas: "Don Giovanni", "The Marriage of Figaro", and "Cos� Fan Tutte".

Answer: Papageno in "The Magic Flute"

But let your hearts be light! Papageno does get a girlfriend by the end of the story. And how's this for an amazing coincidence -- her name is Papagena! Mozart's love of fun and word play found scope in the joyful duet he wrote for these two in the last act of "The Magic Flute". I ask you, who else could pull off so convincingly a duet that begins with lyrics like these:

"Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-papagena!
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-papageno!"

Answer: Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro"

Although Wolfgang Mozart completed "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1786, it is actually the sequel to the story told in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", completed in 1813. Both were based on parts of French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais's trilogy known as "The Figaro Plays".

These works, and the tolerance for their performances, reflect a major historical shift in society -- it was becoming acceptable for voices "from below" to openly question and satirize the ruling class.

Answer: Bartolo in "The Barber of Seville"

It is astonishing that Gioachino Rossini composed "The Barber of Seville" over a period of just two weeks, and that he was only 24 years old at the time. But there is a plethora of astonishing things about this opera, including Rossini's mastery of theatrical pacing, delivered musically. The on-stage action unfolds as a crescendo, building momentum towards a shattering resolution, and the music mirrors this, blow by blow.

We even see this in microcosm in (the ward) Rosina's aria, "Una voce poco fa". It starts out soft and slow, and by the end it has become a rapid-fire onslaught of frolicking, assertive notes that perfectly convey a Rosina not to be messed with.

Answer: Nemorino in "The Elixir of Love"

Gaetano Donizetti was a prolific and facile composer -- it took him only six weeks to write "The Elixir of Love". This effervescent and enduringly popular opera had its premiere in Milan in 1832. Its central theme was typical of the Romantic Period: sincerity conquers all.

(...from which we may conclude that sincerity is a far more effective elixir of love than the cheap wine of the traveling "doctor"!)

Answer: Onegin in "Eugene Onegin"

Opera audiences in 19th-century Europe, including Russia, expected to be treated to some dancing, or at least some dance music, during a performance. In "Eugene Onegin", Pyotr Tchaikovsky delivers marvelously. He gives us a waltz at the beginning of Act II (after the entr'acte) and a polonaise at the beginning of Act III.

His Act II waltz music lasts a full six minutes or so, and while it's supposed to be for the dancers at Tatiana's name-day party, Tchaikovsky seamlessly interweaves it with the sung complaints, gossip, and flirtations of the party-goers. The waltz furthers the action and intensifies the drama.

In Tchaikovsky's day the polonaise was a symbol of Russian nationalism, and he knew it would be a crowd-pleaser to work one into Act III.

Both pieces are magnificent.

Source: Author vairagya

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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