Problem: What is the last name of the person who had sung leading roles in many of Offenbach's operas? Answer the above question based on the context below: The search for a singer-actress to play Carmen began in the summer of 1873. Press speculation favoured Zulma Bouffar, who was perhaps the librettists' preferred choice. She had sung leading roles in many of Offenbach's operas, but she was unacceptable to Bizet and was turned down by du Locle as unsuitable. In September an approach was made to Marie Roze, well known for previous triumphs at the Opera-Comique, the Opera and in London. She refused the part when she learned that she would be required to die on stage. The role was then offered to Celestine Galli-Marie, who agreed to terms with du Locle after several months' negotiation. Galli-Marie, a demanding and at times tempestuous performer, would prove a staunch ally of Bizet, often supporting his resistance to demands from the management that the work should be toned down. At the time it was generally believed that she and the composer were conducting a love affair during the months of rehearsal.The leading tenor part of Don Jose was given to Paul Lherie, a rising star of the Opera-Comique who had recently appeared in works by Massenet and Delibes. He would later become a baritone, and in 1887 sang the role of Zurga in the Covent Garden premiere of Les pecheurs de perles. Jacques Bouhy, engaged to sing Escamillo, was a young Belgian-born baritone who had already appeared in demanding roles such as Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust and as Mozart's Figaro. Marguerite Chapuy, who sang Micaela, was at the beginning of a short career in which she was briefly a star at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; the impresario James H. Mapleson thought her "one of the most charming vocalists it has been my pleasure to know". However, she married and left the stage altogether in 1876, refusing Mapleson's considerable cash inducements to return.

A: Bouffar

Problem: What is the last name of the person that the ailing man wants to pull off a big train robbery? Answer the above question based on the context below: Notorious outlaw Wes McQueen breaks out of jail and heads off to the Colorado Territory to meet the man who arranged the escape, his old friend Dave Rickard. Along the way, the stagecoach he is riding in is attacked by a gang of robbers. When the driver and guard are both killed, McQueen kills or drives off the remaining gunmen, earning the gratitude of the other passengers, dreamer Fred Winslow and his daughter Julie Ann. Winslow has bought a ranch sight unseen and looks forward to making his fortune. McQueen arrives at the ghost town of Todos Santos, where Reno Blake and Duke Harris are waiting for him, along with Reno's part-Indian girlfriend, Colorado Carson. After looking them over (and not liking what he sees), he heads off to a nearby town to meet an ailing Rickard, who asks McQueen to pull off one last big train robbery so they can both retire. With the exception of Rickard, McQueen distrusts everybody else in the gang, including ex-private detective Pluthner, who recruited Reno and Duke, and Homer Wallace, the railroad informant. McQueen wants to go straight, but agrees to do the job out of gratitude and friendship. While waiting for the robbery, McQueen decides to keep Colorado with him to avoid stirring up trouble between Duke and Reno. Although Colorado falls for him and tells him so, McQueen still dreams of marrying Julie Ann and settling down. When he visits the Winslow ranch, he finds it a poor, arid place. Winslow warns him that Julie Ann loves Randolph, a rich man back east. Winslow took her away because Randolph would never have married so far beneath him socially. McQueen, however, is undeterred.

A: McQueen

Problem: What is the name of the person whose fury was turned on the tour's promoters upon learning her accompanist had been ill for months? Answer the above question based on the context below: On 1 January 1948 Ferrier left for a four-week tour of North America, the first of three transatlantic trips she would make during the next three years. In New York she sang two performances of Das Lied von der Erde, with Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic. Alma Mahler, the composer's widow, was present at the first of these, on 15 January. In a letter written the following day, Ferrier told her sister: "Some of the critics are enthusiastic, others unimpressed". After the second performance, which was broadcast from coast to coast, Ferrier gave recitals in Ottawa and Chicago before returning to New York and embarking for home on 4 February.During 1948, amid many engagements, Ferrier performed Brahms's Alto Rhapsody at the Proms in August, and sang in Bach's Mass in B minor at that year's Edinburgh Festival. On 13 October she joined Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra in a broadcast performance of Mahler's song cycle Kindertotenlieder. She returned to the Netherlands in January 1949 for a series of recitals, then left Southampton on 18 February to begin her second American tour. This opened in New York with a concert performance of Orfeo ed Euridice that won uniform critical praise from the New York critics. On the tour which followed, her accompanist was Arpad Sandor (18961972), who was suffering from a depressive illness that badly affected his playing. Unaware of his problem, in letters home Ferrier berated "this abominable accompanist" who deserved "a kick in the pants". When she found out that he had been ill for months, she turned her fury on the tour's promoters: "What a blinking nerve to palm him on to me". Eventually, when Sandor was too ill to appear, Ferrier was able to recruit a Canadian pianist, John Newmark, with whom she formed a warm and lasting working relationship.

A:
Ferrier