Ever since the Metropolitan Opera began relaying its matinee broadcasts to us via the BBC, we’ve been keen listeners to the Opera Quiz in the interval. In fact, most years I send in a question, though to date they’ve never used one of mine. I was particularly proud of one from a couple of years back about casting (of metal objects, not matching singers to roles), using extracts from several of that season’s operas.
We noticed however, that the canon of operas familiar to the panellists was rather different both from ours and from the repertoire put on at the Met. Until a couple of years ago I would keep a running tally during each quiz based one which operas were mentioned, and see at the end whether the scores were positive or negative. A high negative score (over 100 was not unknown) meant that the panellists were drawing (I assume) on the Met’s former repertoire rather than what you might hear now there or at other major opera houses.
It was rather ad hoc but ran roughly as follows:
+10 or +15 points for any opera composed after 1945 (except The Ghosts of Versailles, see below)
+15 points for operas by Berg or Schoenberg
+10 points for any opera earlier than Mozart
+10 points for certain other operas at my discretion (e.g. Cherubini’s Médée)
-10 points for anything by Saint-Saëns, Gounoud (except Faust) or Massenet
-15 points for Andrea Chénier or Adriana Lecouvreur
-20 points for the following: La Gioconda, Louise or The Ghosts of Versailles (which was premiered at the Met – we got tired of hearing about it)
This wasn’t so much a value judgement on all these operas (I actually enjoy the last hour or so of Andrea Chénier) as a way of quantifying how out of touch some of the panellists seemed to be! However, I’ve given up on doing this now, as a new generation of panellists has appeared and even the old guard now only mention La Gioconda in an ironic postmodern sort of way, rather than as something assumed to be well-known to everyone.
Last Saturday’s quiz exemplified a rather regrettable recent trend; instead of being put on the spot, the panellists are invited to bring in with them a recording which illustrates a particular point at issue. The three panellists and the moderator then all comment on one another’s contributions, which can mean at its worst that the same point is made up to sixteen times! Then there isn’t time for any more questions.
Aaargh! The new-look Opera Quiz is just dreadful. Admittedly, they’ve got rid of the ‘Golden Tonsils’ style of question, when the panellists would reminisce at great length about famous Met stars of the past. But at the expense of any question which might elicit an interesting response. And there only seems to be time for about two questions from listeners. I might as well not have bothered sending my question in this year.