Ready for your musical quiz this week? This one challenges all you students of the classics and opera. Try your hand at. . .

Answer the questions. No cheating on Youtube.

1. Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' uses what remarkable instrument?
   
   • An Alpenhorn
   • A 15-foot hammered dulcimer
   • A hurdy-gurdy
   • A cannon
2. Opera is the most scandalous form of classical music. Why did German audiences object to Ludwig Spohr's Pietro de Abano in 1827?
   
   • It included a striptease.
   • It criticized the King of Prussia.
   • It praised Napoleon.
   • It involved necrophilia.
3. Speaking of opera: the first-ever AM radio broadcast featured an opera aria about what?
   
   • A pretty girl
   • A tree
   • Marauding Valkyries
   • A rose

4. What composer used disappearing musicians to drop a not-so-subtle hint to his boss that it was time for everybody to go home?
   
   • Haydn
   • Mozart
   • Schubert
   • Beethoven
5. Which of the following pieces of music was composed by someone who was completely deaf at the time?
   
   • 'Das Deutschlandlied'
   • 'Wir fahren auf der Autobahn'
   • 'An die Freude'
   • 'The Ride of the Valkyrie'

6. Everybody knows that great classical composition by Jacques Offenbach called the 'can-can'. But where was this dance taking place?
   
   • At the Moulin Rouge
   • In hell
   • In front of the Oracle at Delphi
   • On Mount Parnassus
7. Speaking of Offenbach's 'Can-Can', what did Camille Saint-Saëns do to this composition?
   
   • Sued Offenbach for plagiarism
   • Set it to rude words
   • Played it on pan flutes
   • Played it really slowly
8. Where was the Monty Python theme (yeah, sure, it's classical) first played?
   
   • Aboard RMS Titanic
   • On a Ferris wheel
   • Before Queen Victoria
   • At the opening of the Panama Canal
9. What 'musical' instrument did John Cage use in a famous concert piece?
   
   • Typewriter
   • Broom
   • Saw
   • Computer
10. Which US President is a singing role in an opera by John Adams?
    
    • Millard Fillmore
    • Richard M Nixon
    • George Washington
    • Abraham Lincoln

You know the drill: click on the picture below for answers.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

25.06.12 Front Page

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