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Opera and Muical Theater

      Sections:

      1. First lines (16 questions)

      2. Complete the couplet (14 questions)

      3. "Ring" schematic

      4. Musical numbers (14 questions)

      5. "What happens next?" (2 questions)

      6. Libretto identification (6 questions)

      7. Score identification (6 questions)

Section 1 -- First lines

Directions: The first line of a song from an opera, operetta, or musical is given. Identify the show in which the line is found, the character that sings it, and where applicable, the name of the song from which the line is taken.

  1. We've just been introduced; I do not know you well

  2. My day in the hills has come to an end

  3. Puerto Rico, you lovely island

  4. What good is sitting alone in your room?

  5. La fleur que tu m'avais jetee

  6. Everytime I look at you I don't understand

  7. Come all ye Christians and learn from a sinner: Charlie Guiteau

  8. It won't be easy, you'll think it strange

  9. I am the wife of Mao-Tse Tung

  10. It's a very ancient saying, but a true and honest thought

  11. Ebben? Ne andro lontano

  12. Ordinary mothers lead ordinary lives

  13. Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me.

  14. No more talk of darkness

  15. A law was made a distant moon ago here

  16. I dreamt last night I got on the boat to heaven

  17. 0 patria mia!

Section 2 -- Complete the Couplet

Directions: Half of a rhyming couplet from an opera, operetta, or musical is given. Give the next line, then identify the show from which the couplet was taken.

  1. Why, oh why, oh why, oh -

  2. We know we belong to the land

  3. About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news

  4. He shaved the faces of gentlemen

  5. We are warriors three, sons of Gama, Rex.

  6. Taken from the county jail by a set of curious chances

  7. Bali Ha'i may call you any night, any day

  8. This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter

  9. Your looks are laughable

  10. For wine, when it runs in abundance, enhances

  11. I'm a nominee for the G.O.P. or GOP

  12. When I have a brand new hairdo, with my eyelashes all in curl

  13. Dear kindly Judge your honor, my parents treat me rough

  14. The cops, the cabbies, the salesgirls up at Sack's

Section 3 -- "Ring" Schematic

Directions: Fill in the appropriate character names from Richard Wagner's 'Ring Der Niebelungen' in the ovals.

Section 4 -- Musical numbers

Directions: Below are lines from musicals with blanks where numerals or numbers should be. Fill in the blanks with the correct numbers.

  1. On the _____ day of the month of September, in the early years of a decade...

  2. _____ Vietcong captured.

  3. Though counting in the usual way,
    Years ______ I've been alive,
    Yet, reckoning by my natal day,
    I am a little boy of ______.

  4. ______ pounds of fun --
    That's my little honey-bun;
    Get a load of honey-bun tonight.
    I'm speaking of my sweetie pie
    Only ______ inches high...

  5. _______ for your sacrifice.

  6. _______ percent for looking in the mirror twice.

  7. Dance ______; Looks _______

  8. Grandpaw Bill lives on the hill
    with someone he just married.
    There he is at ______.....

  9. Hello ______ , Hello ______, Hello love.

  10. The guy has got him figured at _______ to ________.
    Has chance...

  11. I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men hours every day

  12. When he proposed he informed my mother
    He was probably her very last chance.
    And though she was ________.....

  13. They went and built a skyscraper ________ stories high

  14. _________ Jews in a room bitching.

Section 5 -- "What happens next?"

Directions: The action of the first act of an opera is summarized. For each question identify the opera and composer and BRIEFLY sunmerize the action in the subsequent act or acts.

[N.B. -- Although the correct answers are favored above all else, if for some reason one is not familiar with some the works in this section, some partial credit will be given for originality and imagination.]

  1. A sailor is, for one reason or another, condemned by Satan to sail aimlessly around for eternity, or until he finds a woman to love him. He is allowed to come ashore once every seven years to find such a woman. During one of these periods he runs into a Norwegian captain to whom the sailor offers all his wealth in exchange for hospitality. The sailor discovers the Norwegian has a daughter, and asks permission to woo her. The captain is excited at the prospect of having so wealthy a son-in-law, so the two set sail for the Norwegian's house.

    What happens next?

  2. A Spanish noblewoman and her servants have been kidnaped and taken to Turkey. The lover of the woman has tracked them down. After the fat overseer of the harem where his beloved is being kept refuses to help him, the woman and her captor, the Pasha, approach. The man hides. The woman tells her captor that can never love him, for her heart belongs to another. The Pasha is enraged and demands that she change her mind by tomorrow.

    What happens next?

Section 6 -- Libretto identification

Directions: Below are excerpts from librettos of operas. On the attached answer sheet, identify the opera from which each is taken. Then give the composer of the opera, as well as the librettist.

  1. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

  2. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

  3. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

  4. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

  5. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

  6. opera:
    composer:
    librettist:

Section 7 -- Score identification

  1. opera:
    composer:

  2. opera:
    composer:

  3. opera:
    composer:

  4. opera:
    composer:

  5. opera:
    composer:

  6. opera:
    composer: