1. Cio-cio-san is 15. In the poignant scene where she is first introduced to Pinkerton and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Sharpless asks how old she is:
| Sharpless: Quant'anni avete? Cio-cio-san: Indovinate. Sharpless: Dieci? Cio-cio-san: Crescete. Sharpless: Venti? Cio-cio-san: Calate . . . quindici netti, netti; sono vecchia diggià! |
Sharpless: How old are you? Cio-cio-san: Guess. Sharpless: Ten? Cio-cio-san: Go higher. Sharpless: Twenty? Cio-cio-san: Go lower . . . Fifteen exactly; I'm already old! |
Sharpless is shocked at how young she is ("Quindici anni! L'età dei giuochi" - "Fifteen! The age for games"), but Pinkerton doesn't see it that way ("e dei confetti" - "and for wedding-cake").
2. Eighteen years and two minutes. In The Magic Flute, Papageno is confronted with what appears to be an amorous old hag (Papagena in disguise) and asks how old she is. She replies, "Achtzehn Jahr und zwei Minuten" (18 years and 2 minutes). Understandably confused, Papageno asks, "Achtzig Jahr und zwei Minuten?" (80 years and 2 minutes), but Papagena corrects him firmly, which leaves him even more confused (and nervous!) than before.
3. In Madama Butterfly, Trouble, Cio-cio-san's son by Pinkerton, is something under three. We know this from the letter scene; Pinkerton tells Sharpless in the letter that "tre anni son passati, e forse Butterfly non mi rammenta più" ("three years have passed, and perhaps Butterfly doesn't remember me anymore"). Pinkerton, of course, does not yet know that he has a son.
4. Because the teenager is in love with every woman he sees (but particularly the Countess). In The Marriage of Figaro, Cherubino's aria, "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio" ("I don't know what I am, what I'm doing") relates in a gush of emotion that he can't stop thinking of women. Also known as "The Hormone Aria."
5. Four. The escaped political prisoner Angelotti commits suicide to avoid capture (offstage), Scarpia is stabbed by Tosca with a table knife, Cavaradossi is shot at dawn in what was supposed to be a mock execution, and Tosca jumps to her death off the parapet of the Castel Sant'Angelo. (There's also a reference to Count Palmieri's execution -- it, too, was supposed to be fake, but apparently wasn't.)
6. The answer's in the question: Michele hides Luigi's body in "il tabarro," Michele's cloak. In a gruesome bit of irony, after Michele strangles his wife's lover, he hides the body in the cloak, and then invites his wife to come snuggle with him in the cloak as she used to. She says, "Mi dicevi un tempo, 'Tutti quanti portiamo un tabarro che asconde qualche volta una gioia, qualche volta un dolore'" ("You once told me, 'We all wear a cloak that sometimes hides joy, sometimes hides sorrow'"). He replies, grimly, "Qualche volta un delitto! Vieni nel mio tabarro! Vieni! Vien!" ("Sometimes a crime! Come into my cloak! Come! Come!"), and pushes her face into that of her dead lover as the curtain comes down. One of the nastiest endings in all of opera.
7. In Act II of Il Trovatore, Azucena the gypsy relates to her "son," Manrico, that she tried to avenge her mother's death by burning at the stake by throwing the Count di Luna's infant brother into the fire ("Condotta ell'era in ceppi" - "She was led in chains"). Instead, she rather carelessly threw her own baby into the fire. (The baby she tried to kill grew up to be Manrico, but she leaves that part out.)
8. In Faust, the title character is no warrior, having spent his whole life with his nose in a book, so Méphistophélès gives him a magical assist in his sword-fight with Valentin.
9. In Act I of La Bohème, Rodolfo's friends urge him to come out and celebrate Christmas Eve at the Café Momus. He has to stay behind, however, to finish an article for "Il Castoro" (The Beaver). Schaunard tells him to hurry: "Taglia corta la coda al tuo Castor!" ("Cut your Beaver's tail short!"). It's a good thing he doesn't, because within minutes he meets Mimì, without whom there would be no opera.
10. In Cavalleria Rusticana, Turiddu leads his mother to believe that he's gone to Francofonte to buy wine, but in reality he's out frolicking with Lola.
11. The Father in Hansel and Gretel is a broom-maker, of course -- which ties in very neatly with the Witch's favorite mode of transportation.
12. Five. In a great duet from The Barber of Seville, Figaro gives Almaviva directions to his shop:
| Numero quindici a mano manca, Quattro gradini, facciata bianca, Cinque parrucche nella vetrina, Sopra un cartello: "Pomata fina," Mostra in azzurro alla moderna, V'è per insegna una lanterna. Là senza fallo mi troverà. |
Number 15 on the left, Four steps, white facade, Five wigs in the window, Under a sign: "Fine Pomade," Modern blue storefront, There's a lantern as a sign. There without fail you'll find me. |
13. Luciano Pavarotti, of course, who made an album with that name over 20 years ago, featuring the famous aria from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment, "Pour mon âme," which calls for 9 high Cs.
14. Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973), the great Danish heldentenor, appeared with Jimmy Durante in "Two Sisters from Boston" (1946), a delightful movie set at the turn of the century about a young soprano from Boston (Kathryn Grayson) who has to work in a low saloon (run by the Schnozz, of course) in New York so she can afford her voice lessons. Most of the "opera" in the movie is reconstituted Liszt and Mendelssohn (which Melchior sings the heck out of anyway), but there's a great scene in which Melchior makes a Victrola recording of the Prize Song ("Morgenlich leuchtend") from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The scenes between Melchior and Durante are a scream. Also starring June Allyson and Peter Lawford. (Get the video from Amazon.com and help support Regina Opera.)
15. Helen Traubel (1899-1972), the leading Wagnerian soprano at the Met during the 1940s and early 1950s, appeared on Jimmy Durante's radio program and made a memorable recording with him of "When the Song Comes from the Heart," among others. At the end of that recording, she hits a high note, and the last thing you hear is Durante saying, "Showoff!" It was antics like this -- and her nightclub appearances -- that led her to leave the Met in 1953 when Sir Rudolf Bing disapproved.
16. Placido Domingo made the leap from Italianate tenor to heldentenor with great success.
17. The lady swathed in the American flag is Austrian-born contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1861-1936), here appearing with two doughboys at a World War I bond rally in New York. Mme. Schumann-Heink was a Met star from 1899 until 1932. She created the role of Klytemnestra in Richard Strauss's Elektra, and reportedly had 150 roles under her substantial belt.
