Quarterly Quiz: Tenors

You may be able to talk fluently about music in general and about opera in particular; however, to be really popular at cocktail parties, you must also know some good stories. To test your knowledge of singer lore, read and enjoy the following anecdotes, then identify the tenors involved. These anecdotes have been gleaned from a number of biographies and autobiographies or other opera-personality books, all of which are identified in the answers to the quiz on pages 768-69. (Caveat: stories take on a life of their own, and the same one is sometimes told about more than one singer or may acquire factual inaccuracies as it is told and retold. The emphasis in this Quarterly Quiz is on humor, so enjoy.)

1. This English tenor was greatly beloved in Vienna. After an October 1924 concert that he gave before departing for a season in Chicago, the audience refused to leave. Thinking to solve the problem, the hall manager turned out the lights, and the hall electrician left the hall, carrying with him the keys needed to turn on the lights. Nevertheless, the audience still refused to leave. Eventually this tenor satisfied the audience by borrowing a flashlight, going onstage, and singing seven encores. Then, and only then, did the audience leave. Name the much-loved tenor.

2. This tenor once suffered from the attentions of an overly enthusiastic PR person. When he arrived in New York to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, the PR person rented a goat and tied it near where the tenor was scheduled to give a press conference. Because the tenor could not speak English well, the PR person did most of the talking. Afterward, this tenor was horrified to learn that the newspapers had printed that he never went anywhere without his pet goat, that the goat was kept in his dressing room while he sang opera onstage, that he milked the goat himself, that he usually went barefoot, and that he was a wrestler always eager for a match with a good opponent. The PR person was fired. Name the unhappy tenor.

3. After this tenor died, his widow played one of his recordings. Hearing the recording, their young daughter toddled into the room, held her arms up, and cried, "Daddy! Daddy!" Name the fatherly tenor.

4. This tenor could be a harsh teacher. Often the sound of crying could be heard at his house. People who asked the neighbors what was happening were told, "Oh, that's nothing. It's only [this tenor] teaching his pupils how to sing." He could be more than harsh when teaching his own children. He once ordered his daughter to learn an entirely new role in a few days. When she protested because of the shortness of time, he threatened to kill her if she did not learn it. Despite this severe treatment, she loved her father. Near the end of his career, they sang together—he as Otello, she as Desdemona. At the curtain call, her face appeared as dark as her father's; while the curtain was down, she had kissed this tenor's sooty face. Name the harsh but loved tenor.

5. On 11 October 1968 this tenor became the father of a boy whom he named Alvaro. The next night this tenor sang at the New York City Opera in Pagliacci. Playing the part of a clown, he was supposed to throw candy to a chorus of children onstage, but on this night he instead threw cigars to the adults, including many in the audience. Each cigar was marked, "It's a boy!" Name the celebratory tenor.

6. While singing the title role of Pietro Mascagni's L'amicoFritz in Savona, this Irish tenor realized that he was going to fluff the high B-flat in "O amore, o bella luce del core." With great presence of mind, he opened his mouth wide, sang nothing, but acted as if he had sung the note perfectly. The audience...