- Journal
|
-
Past Quiz Questions
March Name the Oklahoma-born operamom, the tenth of fifteen children, who said, "A whole lot of singers make their mistake--they put their whole lives into just career. Well, I think as an individual and from my background I have so much to do. And if I ever retire I don't think I'll keep coming back, because I find such fulfillment in relationships, real relationships with people, and in life itself." Recently inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, this African-American soprano resides in New York City and Houston, TX. Answer
February Who is the American-born operamom who is as well-known for her humanitarian work as she is her operatic achievements? A self-described "proud mother of a teenage son and daughter", she has appeared in film productions as Mimi in La bohème, and Anne Truelove in The Rake's Progress. She has been acclaimed as one of the leading and most active recitalists of her generation and in addition to her vast repertoire of German Lieder, she is also known as a leading interpreter and staunch promoter of French, American and Scandanavian music. Now a Swedish citizen, she has lived in Europe since 1977. In 1998 she founded a self-named Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation to personalize her struggle for the prevention of conflicts in the world and to facilitate reconciliation and enduring peace where conflicts have already occurred. Answer
January 2003 Name the New York-born soprano who credits giving birth to her daughter Daphne as her "greatest achievement", adding that "she has enabled me to go even beyond my wildest imaginings." Known worldwide for her Cio-Cio San and Salome, this singer was not only turned down by Juilliard, but told that she could forget about ever having a career as a singer! A career spanning three decades has proven otherwise. Answer
December Name the American soprano, and mother of three, who sang Sophie in a Metropolitan Opera production of Der Rosenkavalier three weeks after she gave birth to her first child at the age of 29. (HINT: She commissioned a song by Marc Neikrug in celebration of the birth of her son in 1995.) Answer
November Name the American soprano who made the following comment about singing: "It's never been my whole life. My family has been more important to me and always will be. I don't want to picture myself someday sitting in my studio with all these pictures (saying), 'When I did Violetta' -- after 10 facelifts with my toy poodle on my lap, telling some young student how wonderful I was. I would hate that. Growing old gracefully is the most beautiful thing one can do. Accept your age. I don't think you necessarily have to look it. But just live life to the fullest whatever age you are." (HINT: This singer is one of three in a well-known operatic ensemble.) Answer
October
Name the Lancashire-born soprano, who is married to vocal coach David Gowland, and has two young sons. Adamant that she's not going to be sucked into "the airport-to-airport superstar thing, she insists that they take first place in her life. "Fortunately, my agent, Jonathan Groves, is also a family man who understands that." (HINT: This singer survived a strongly-criticized rapid ascent to stardom ten years ago.) Answer
September
Name the unconventional Oldenburg-born soprano, known for her highly individual and dramatic Wagner interpretations, who raised two children. She is quoted as saying "Thank God I have my family and wonderful friends and a lot of colleagues I respect. This is my greatest luxury. Singing is the most wonderful experience imaginable and I wouldn't want to change my life with anybody's." Answer
August
What New Zealand-born soprano was quoted as saying, "I feel lucky because I know I am one of the few singers to combine a completely satisfying working life with a happy home life. But it means having no social life at all just a very few close friends. I only have so much energy, so something had to go. This is why, at the end of the day, I've preserved my sanity for the children and also manage to do my best at work." Answer
July
Born in 1861 near Prague, can you name the contralto who debuted at 17 years of age as Azucena? Abandoned by her husband when she was pregnant with her fourth child, she went on to become the leading contralto in Hamburg for 14 years. The Met engaged her just after she married her second husband, and her new life in America brought three more children. For the next 30+ years she performed a wide variety of repertoire on the stage and concert platform, including musicals, radio work, and film. Her last appearance at the Met was as Erda in Siegfried. She died in 1936 from leukemia. Who was this remarkable operamom? Answer
Top
of Page
June
Who is the Italian soprano who said the following: "My daughter has traveled with me since she was ten days old. . . I do my job, which is important for me, which is my happiness -- along with my baby, of course. But when I go out of the theater, I am myself. That's all. I am not a diva. This is my way." (Hint: This singer is Italy's new hope for their next great Verdi soprano.) Answer
May
Who is the Russian mezzo who sang in Boris Godunov at the Met while seven months pregnant, and was described as "still a dangerously seductive Marina"? Twelve years earlier, she sang the title role of Carmen - also pregnant. This singer is quoted as saying, "The moment I walk onstage, I feel this something, this force coming to me from somewhere above; and suddenly I exude so much energy that it's enough for each of the 2,000 or so people out there." (Hint: This singer often sings a character in "Eugene Onegin", with whom she shares a name.) Answer
April
Name the recently-deceased American soprano who told the following tale about her Met debut: "My husband and two kids came and sat in a box and they were thrilled. But Alceste has a lot of dancing. After one, this balletomane sitting behind them let loose with a boo. My daughter turned and said, 'If you boo my mommy, I'll slap your face!' She was seven. I raised her right." Answer
March
Name the Slavakia-born coloratura soprano who raised her two daughters alone following the untimely death of her husband, who said that "every singer who has children will know what I mean when I say that wherever one is, no matter what one is doing on stage, one's mind is always at home with the children wondering what they're doing, whether they are all right and why am I here and not with them? They need me and I need them." She is most known for her portrayals of Queen of the Night and Zerbinetta. Answer
February
Name the Italian soprano born in the fishing town of Savona, who said,"Do I think of myself as a diva? Even after being anointed with a mink for a Blackglama poster, I still had to wash my children's clothes, clean my house, go to the supermarket and pick out the best vegetables. A diva would not drive her own car, or scream at the children when they misbehave, or take care of her family. I don't fool around with singing when I am at home, I have too much to do. It might be easy to play at being a diva, but that's not for me." Well known for her Verdi and Puccini, she became a resident Diva at the Met in 1974, where for many years she appeared almost every season. Answer
January, 2002
Name the coloratura soprano who sang through much of her pregnancy because her costumes were conveniently concealing, like that for Micaela in Carmen, which ''hung from below the bust line to the floor over a large hooped underskirt.'' Within three years after her son's birth, she was an international sensation, and made her Met debut in 1961 at the age of 35, singing Lucia. Answer
Top
of Page December
Name the Spanish mezzo-soprano who stressed that singers should not sacrifice everything because this will not only make for a very sad and empty life after retirement, but will also make their singing arid, and bereft of the juice, the mellowness, that comes from living life to the full. She is deeply happy to have had her children while still young because this helped her strike the right balance between her public and private life.(HINT: She is well known for her Carmen and Rosina, and she was the first female opera and lyrical singer nominated as a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Arts.) Answer
November
Name the Hungarian dramatic soprano, who took on her doctor-husband's last name, who is quoted as saying: "I'm lucky to have a husband who takes a great interest in my work and career and two beautiful children who have always traveled with me as much as possible, and seen places I only knew from books at their age." (HINT: The role of Turandot turned her into a star.) Answer
October
Name the Swedish sö-prano, most noted for her Janacek recordings in the 1970's with Sir Charles Mackerras, who is quoted as saying: "I sang Musetta with her [Tebaldi's] Mimì at the old Met, with no rehearsals! I was pregnant and wanted to drop out, but Mr. Bing wouldn't let me. So I covered myself with boas to hide my pregnancy. When I made my entrance, screeching onstage in Act II, Tebaldi took one look at me and said, 'Mamma mia!'" (HINT: From 1991 until 1996 she was the director of the Drottingholm Opera Festival and also worked successfully as a stage director.) Answer
September
Name the American soprano who gave birth to her first child four months before her Covent Garden debut in "Elektra" with Sir Georg Solti. She said, "I never felt better, even though Eva Marton kept laughing because she insisted that I smelled like milk." Answer
August
Name the British dramatic soprano with a career spanning more than 30 years, who said, "Being a mother has been a crucial experience for me, both as a woman and as an artist: because you have to know the feelings you are portraying on stage. It helps make your interpretations richer if you've lived and have personal knowledge of those emotions."Answer
Top
of Page July
Name the Salzburg-born mezzo-soprano whose young son, Felix, bears the middle name of "Octavian". (HINT: She studied piano at the Mozarteum in Austria.)Answer
June
This month's OperaMom Quiz Question is a bit different. Name the Hollywood star whose mother was an operasinger in Germany. She spent her first twelve years either on the road with her mother, or in the small town of Nuremberg with her aunt and grandmother. When her mother toured Europe, she was a self-proclaimed "gypsy child in the back singing". (HINT: Her first blockbuster success gave her a "speedy" rise to fame.) Answer
May
Name the renowned Catalan-born soprano who said, "I have found in
my family a support many singers lack - which is why they don't feel
as confident as I do. Confidence has nothing to do with prestige,
money, success or fame and everything to do with human
relationships." This mother of two, who never allowed her
personal life to assume second place in her life, turned down a
10-year contract from the Met in 1971, because it would have meant
uprooting her entire family. Answer
April
Name
the French operamom who in 1998, sang
Olympia in La Scala's Les Contes
d'Hoffmann in an advanced stage
of pregnancy, and managed to pop out a
high G at the end of her aria. Of the
role, she said, ". . . at La
Scala, I was pregnant, so Olympia was
too. She did a striptease, and then
demolished everything she
touched." Answer
March
Name
the American mezzo-soprano, best known
for her lyric travesti
roles, who said, "[In 1989] I had
my son, Benjamin, and he was four months
old when I got to rehearsals for the
Met, so I was a bit overweight and breast-feeding
and feeling not very man-like. I had
a lot of major debuts, and all I thought
about was getting through it and being
a good mom. In a way, that took the
nerves away. My brain was always somewhere
else." (HINT: She is a graduate
of HGO's Opera Studio). Answer
February
Name the *sweet*
American dramatic soprano whose marriage
to a Philidelphia minister was followed
by the birth of their three children
(including a set of twins.) "My
husband is my support shelf. He says
the thing he fell in love with first
was my voice, and I came along for the
ride! He's extremely musical. He believed
so deeply that God wanted me to sing,
that he made me believe this was really
going to happen." Answer
January,
2001
Name the Korean
soprano who lives on Long Island with
her husband, two teen-age daughters
and 6-year-old son. She has remarked,
"Singers love to talk about the
voice, how to produce it, how to support
it, how to breathe. That bores me. I
want to talk about the person. What
kind of life they had, how many children,
what they love . . . I love to sing.
I was born to sing. It's the career
I've chosen. My concern is my family
and my singing." Answer
Top
of Page
December,
2000
Who is the soprano
that sang Desdemona at the Met in 1995,
within five weeks of having her second
child? She took two lessons a week before
the baby was born, and started again
at one week postpartum. She said, "I
don't even know how I did it. Just determination
I think." Answer
November
Name the Brooklyn-born
soprano who said, "I have three
step-children, and two children of our
own. Our two children, between them,
have five birth defects. So, this was
not a question of Mama going off to
Vienna for three days to sing and leaving
a nice nanny in charge of two little
kids who were going off to a fancy private
school. The solution was to take them
all with me. I sang in Europe only during
the children's summer vacations. I never
sang in Europe when all the children
were not with me. Which meant nannies
and Grandma. Grandma traveled with us
and was the Rock of Gibraltar."
Answer
October
Name the Bulgarian
soprano - a "Karajan singer"
- who said, "I was born for my
profession, I felt compelled to follow
my calling, and a singing career isn't
ideally suited to family life. But I
wouldn't be without my one daughter,
without the wonderful experience of
having a child." Answer
September
Name the versatile
American soprano who was quoted as saying,
"I don't stay away from my children
longer than two or three weeks at a
time". The children, a daughter and
a son, stay with their father, musicologist
Michael Nott, and visit her on tour.
(Hint: She recently premiered a new
opera based on a "Great" American
novel.) Answer
August
Name the American
operamom who commissioned the song cycle
"Paper Wings", set to four
short poems she wrote for
one of her two daughters.
Answer
July
Name the Italian operamom
who traveled from La Scala every night
to her home in Modena, in order to eat
breakfast with her daughter. Answer
June
Name the English soprano who
sang Alceste at La Scala
six weeks after giving birth to her
first child. Answer
Top
of Page
Top
of Page
|
|
|
