Soho the Dog Quiz

OK, I came up with my answers to this very wicked quiz.

1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?
Figaro's Non più andrai in Don Giovanni. I had no idea it was there, and when I first sat down to listen to Don G, I barely knew Le Nozze, so when this piece came up, I scratched my head and said "Isn't this what Mozart plays in Amadeus when he is showing Salieri up..?" These days I know better, but it's such a cool cross-marketing.

2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.
Am not a connosieur of crossover, but Juan Diego's Sentimiento Latino is preeety good.

3. Great piece with a terrible title.
There are number of Bach cantatas (especially The World is my Hospital series) with particularly nasty titles but Mein Herz schwimmt im Blut takes the crown.

4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?
Benji. Silly question.

5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)
The first Ms Gesualdo!

6. Terrible piece with a great title.
The Assassin Tree. Well, am not sure just how bad it is, but how can it live up to such a great title...?

7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?
I love The Smell of Valkyries in the Morning- so here's another vote for Wagner in Apocalypse Now, but my personal favorite is Il Dolce Suono from Lucia di Lammermoor in Fifth Element.


8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.
Any album by Renee Fleming would qualify, especially her Xmas Special (complete with the film edition), known as le Sacred Cow, but if I had to pick one, it would be her Handel album.
BTW, Amazon has removed my review of the Sacred Cheese for "spiteful content"- in other words, it was too scathing and funny and zee righteous Flemingos were pissed off- but a shorter version survives on iTunes. Jpeg version here:

9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?
Marvin. Better songs.

EXTRA CREDIT:

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.
Flagstad singing Gluck and Bach. So wrong. It's Flagstad. I love it.