Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Bel Canto? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. When did Mr. Hosokawa first encounter opera?
When he got really sick of his daughter's Justin Bieber album
When his wife took him to see The Marriage of Figaro on their honeymoon
When he heard a Roxane Coss recording on his 45th birthday
When his father took him to see Verdi's Rigoletto on his eleventh birthday
Q. Does Roxane Coss know all the languages she sings in?
Sure: they teach you every last one in opera school
Yes: she's specialized in only singing languages she knows
No: she's learned how to pronounce them and act out the gist of her words while singing, but she has to read a translation to know what some of them mean
No: she tells Mr. Hosokawa she's too busy to learn anything besides English
Q. Roxane has just finished singing an aria from which opera when the lights go out?
Puccini's Turandot
Handel's Alcina
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
Dvořak's Rusalka
Q. Why does Roxane try to stop Cesar from singing the end of an aria?
She's jealous of his talent
She needs to make an important announcement
She's worried that he's not prepared yet for the impossibly high note at the end
She wants him to cover some glam rock instead
Q. How does Father Arguedas usually listen to opera?
He goes to the opera house in the city where he lives
He listens to it on records in the basement of a university library
He downloads it to his iPod, of course
He lives next door to an opera teacher, so he can't not hear it