Although she retired from opera in 2017, Renée Fleming returned in 2022 to star in the stage premiere of this opera alongside Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this opera by Kevin Puts whose three isolated female leads only acknowledge each other in their final trio.
ANSWER: The Hours
[10e] For The Hours’s final trio, Puts took inspiration from the final trio of this opera, in which Fleming had made her farewell. The Marschallin blesses the love between Sophie and Octavian in that trio from this Richard Strauss opera.
ANSWER: Der Rosenkavalier [or The Knight of the Rose]
[10m] Fleming continued her return to opera by singing this role in the Paris Opera’s first production of an opera originally staged by Peter Sellars. This character sings the aria “This is prophetic.”
ANSWER: Pat Nixon [or Pat Nixon; accept Mrs. Nixon or Richard Nixon’s wife; reject “Nixon”]
<Ivvone Zhou, Classical Music and Opera>