And now, cher public, the vocal identification quiz in excelsis, Leonora’s great Act IV scena from Il trovatore, as sung by 25 sopranos (and five tenors). And the winner of the contest will enjoy a most sumptuous prize package.

For this fiendishly difficult quiz prepared by Our Own DeCaffarrelli, your task is to identify as many Leonoras (and Manricos) as possible, in the correct order, in the comments section.

Please note that selections 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16, comprising the “Miserere” each include a Leonora and a Manrico, both of whom should be identified. (For example, you might answer “11. Rosa Ponselle and Andrea Bocelli“.) Thus the highest possible score on this quiz will be 30 correct names.

Whoever identifies all 30 correctly first will win the contest; if the competition time elapses without any perfect entries, whoever gets the highest number of correct answers will win. In case of a tie, the earlier entry will be declared winner. All decisions will be made by La Cieca, which I don’t think I need to tell you implies finality.

Now, what does one win, besides eternal fame and glory? Well, our good friends at Opera Depot are contributing a brand new 16GB iPod Touch and a gift certificate for downloads of 20 complete operas to help fill it!

La Cieca will keep this competition open for 10 days, finishing on August 14 at midnight, and at that point, whichever commenter has identified correctly (and in the correct order, of course) the highest number of Leonore and Manrici will win!

Now, cher public, start listening!

Track

Starts at

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0:00

2

0:22

3

1:06

4

1:46

5

2:20

6

2:44

7

3:17

8

4:06

9

4:38

10

5:25

11

6:25

12

7:19

13

8:14

14

8:32

15

9:08

16

9:45

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10:21

18

10:45

19

11:02

20

11:24

21

11:59

22

12:34

23

13:11

24

13:42

25

14:16

La Cieca

James Jorden (who wrote under the names "La Cieca" and "Our Own JJ") was the founder and editor of parterre box. During his 20 year career as an opera critic he wrote for the New York Times, Opera, Gay City News, Opera Now, Musical America and the New York Post. He also raised his voice in punditry on National Public Radio. From time to time he directed opera, including three unsuccessful productions of Don Giovanni. He also contributed a regular column on opera for the New York Observer. James died in October 2023.

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