Memorize these and you could recognize 29.3% of all Opera clues.
| # | Answer | Appearances | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmen | 38 | This opera, which featuresthe following, was the 1st transmitted in color on TV: |
| 2 | Aida | 30 | Placido Domingo played Radames in a 1987 production of this Verdi opera staged at the Temple of Luxor |
| 3 | Madame Butterfly | 29 | At the start of this Puccini opera the Japanese heroine is 15, but 2 acts & 3 years later, she kills herself |
| 4 | Richard Wagner | 28 | Like many of his works, this composer's "Tannhauser" is based on Germanic legends |
| 5 | Giuseppe Verdi | 22 | Famed for tragic operas, this Italian composer had tragedy of wife & 2 children dying in a 2-year period |
| 6 | William Tell | 20 | 13th century Switzerland:this opera, Rossini's last |
| 7 | I Pagliacci | 20 | There's some clowning around in this opera meaning "the clowns" until people start getting killed |
| 8 | Hansel and Gretel | 17 | It was Engelbert Humperdinck's 1st & most successful opera |
| 9 | Rigoletto | 16 | He's the hunchback jester to the Duke of Mantua in a Verdi opera |
| 10 | Giacomo Puccini | 15 | Around the same time, Leoncavallo & this man both wrote operas based on the novel "Scenes de la vie de boheme" |
| 11 | Fidelio | 14 | Beethoven completed 4 overtures for this, his only opera |
| 12 | W.A. Mozart | 14 | This Austrian composer's 1790 opera "Cosi fan tutte" is set in 18th c. Naples |
| 13 | Figaro | 13 | The Barber of Seville makes sure everyone knows this, his name |
| 14 | Enrico Caruso | 13 | This famous Italian tenor was in San Francisco to perform when the 1906 earthquake struck |
| 15 | The Magic Flute | 12 | In a Mozart opera this title object belonged to Tamino |
| 16 | La traviata | 12 | The libretto for this Verdi opera is based on Alexander Dumas' "The Lady of the Camellias" |
| 17 | Faust | 12 | The part of the devil is sung by a bass in Gounod's opera about this soul-seller |
| 18 | The Barber of Seville | 11 | 1816 Rome premiere of this beloved work was called one of the greatest fiascos in opera:[Instrumental music plays] |
| 19 | Salome | 11 | In Richard Strauss' opera about this woman, her dancing leads to the death of John the Baptist |
| 20 | Tosca | 10 | Add "nini" to the title of this Puccini opera & you get a famous conductor of Puccini operas |
| 21 | Lohengrin | 10 | The white dove of the Holy Grail appears in the last act of this Wagner opera |
| 22 | Falstaff | 10 | This Verdi opera is based on Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" & "Henry IV" |
| 23 | Porgy and Bess | 10 | "Summertime" is a lullaby sung at the beginning of this Gershwin opera |
| 24 | The Marriage of Figaro | 9 | The same main characters appear in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" & this Mozart opera |
| 25 | The Bartered Bride | 9 | This popular Smetana opera includes a spirited polka & a chorus in praise of beer |
| 26 | Don Giovanni | 9 | Lorenzo da Ponte, librettist for this 1787 Mozart opera about a seducer, was friends with Casanova, who had the same hobby IRL |
| 27 | Lucia di Lammermoor | 8 | Donizetti opera that includesthe following, perhaps the most famous mad scene in opera: |
| 28 | The Flying Dutchman | 7 | An opera by Richard Wagner, or nickname of baseball great Honus Wagner |
| 29 | Paris | 7 | "La bohème" is set in the Latin Quarter of this city |
| 30 | Amahl and the Night Visitors | 7 | 1 act opera by Menotti based on Bosch's painting "The Adoration of the Magi" |
| 31 | Gioachino Rossini | 7 | Though he lived another 39 years, 1829's "Guillaume Tell" was the last opera he would write |
| 32 | Vienna | 6 | City in which Strauss set "Die Fledermaus" & "Wiener Blut" |
| 33 | Turandot | 6 | Ping, Pang & Pong are characters in this Puccini opera set in Peking |
| 34 | Seville | 6 | The action in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" takes place at a chateau near this city |
| 35 | Madama Butterfly | 6 | This opera set in Nagasaki was first performed in Italian in Milan in 1904 |
| 36 | La Scala | 6 | The name of this Italian opera house means "theater at the stairway" |
| 37 | Amahl | 6 | He was the crippled 12-year-old title character in the first opera written for television |
| 38 | Richard Strauss | 6 | Count Bitowski leads the company in praise of the waltz in "The Viennese Spirit" by this composer |
| 39 | Georges Bizet | 6 | The Friendship duet of Zurga & Nadir is a high point of "The Pearl Fishers" by this composer of "Carmen" |
| 40 | a barber | 6 | Plying this trade in Seville, Figaro had many close shaves |
| 41 | Orpheus | 5 | The earliest opera that survives, Peri's 1600 "Euridice" tells of Euridice & this husband |
| 42 | oranges | 5 | Fruit which completes the title of the Prokofiev opera "The Love for Three..." |
| 43 | Lucia | 5 | This bride of Lammermoor & her love, Edgardo, wind up dead at the end of the opera |
| 44 | Hoffmann | 5 | His "Tales" begin at the tap room of Luther's Tavern in Nuremberg |
| 45 | Die Fledermaus | 5 | In this operetta, Prince Orlovsky calls champagne "the king of all wines" |
| 46 | Cinderella | 5 | Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" was based on this fairy tale |
| 47 | "Carmen" | 5 | One film version of this opera was titled "The Cigarette Maker of Seville" |
| 48 | Tristan and Isolde | 5 | This 1865 opera named for 2 legendary lovers contains the passage heard here |
| 49 | The Girl of the Golden West | 5 | Minnie, a saloon owner, is the title characters in this Puccini opera |