Opera Trivia

Select the correct answer from among the choices given.

Constructive criticism is welcome. Subscribe to get a notification when I release a new quiz.

I’m not sure how much of an appetite there is for opera-themed quizzes, so please leave a comment if you want more.
Quiz by
arjaygee
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Last updated: May 18, 2024
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First submittedAugust 18, 2023
Times taken115
Average score46.7%
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1. Which opera does NOT have a principal character named Elvira?
Don Giovanni
Ernani
La favorita
I puritani
2. What is the name of Cio-Cio-San’s maid in Madama Butterfly?
Harley
Suzuki
Yamaha
Kawasaki
3. Which is an opera composed by Gioacchino Rossini?
La mère coupable
Le nozze di Figaro
Il barbiere di Siviglia
Assedio di Firenze
4. Where does the opera Norma take place?
An unspecified location in Scandinavia
Gaul
The outskirts of the city of Rome
Anglo-Saxon England
5. Which character sings «Nessun dorma» in the final act of Turandot?
Calaf
Rodolfo
Rinuccio
Cavaradossi
6. Which Valkyrie role did Wagner write for a contralto?
Ortlinde
Schwertleite
Roßweiße
Waltraute
7. Which of the following did NOT compose an operatic retelling of the Faust legend?
Berlioz: La damnation de Faust; Busoni: Doktor Faust; Gounod: Faust.
Hector Berlioz
Robert Schumann
Ferruccio Busoni
Charles Gounod
8. John Adams (1947- ) composed which opera?
Samuel Barber composed an opera (arguably better known) of the same name.
The Prodigal Son
Antony and Cleopatra
The Ice Break
Maria Golovin
9. Which musical number can you hear in a standard performance of Carmen?
Escamillo sings «Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre» (The Toreador Song) in Act II.
The Flower Duet
The Bell Song
The Macarena
The Toreador Song
10. In an 1831 Bellini opera, one of the principal characters sings an aria cantabile while she is …
Amina, the main protagonist in La sonnambula is sleepwalking when she sings «Ah, non credea mirarti». Luckily, she wakes up in time to sing the cabaletta «Ah, non giunge».
Drunk
Offstage
Asleep
Dying
11. Carlisle Floyd’s opera Susannah takes place in which U.S. state?
Tennessee
North Carolina
Kentucky
Oklahoma
12. The Kitchen Boy in Dvořák’s Rusalka is usually performed by …
A mezzo-soprano
A lyric tenor
A non-speaking actor
A treble
13. Which of the following is NOT known to have composed an opera based on one of Shakespeare’s plays?
Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Thomas: Hamlet; Verdi: Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff.
Ambroise Thomas
Benjamin Britten
Giuseppe Verdi
Ottorino Respighi
14. In this one-act opera, a troubled woman discloses (during a telephone conversation) her recent suicide attempt.
Night (Lorenzo Ferrero)
The Telephone (Gian Carlo Menotti)
Sancta Susanna (Paul Hindemith)
La voix humaine (Francis Poulenc)
15. Richard Wagner had a son who was also an opera composer. What was the son’s name?
Tristan Wagner
Sigmund Wagner
Siegfried Wagner
Walther Wagner
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4 Comments
+1
Level 90
Sep 20, 2023
Cool first quiz, but hard!!! I only got four right. Also try Famous Operas!
+1
Level 76
Sep 20, 2023
Thank you. I had a lot of fun putting this together, but I thought it had been removed from the site because it had so few takers. Last time I checked, it wasn’t showing up in the search.

How did you come across it?

+1
Level 68
Apr 8, 2025
I would like more opera quizzes but easier. Maybe ask about major composers, their best known works, and main characters.
+1
Level 76
Apr 8, 2025
I currently have no plans to design more opera quizzes, as opera is among the least popular quiz topics on this site.

Almost every composer mentioned in this quiz is considered a “major opera composer” in this article, and nearly every opera referenced is on this list of prominent operas, so I’m not quite sure how to interpret the rest of your comment.