Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What did Wood perform between March and July 1896?, using the article: Between the first and second season of promenade concerts, Wood did his last work in the opera house, conducting Stanford's new opera Shamus O'Brien at the Opera Comique. It ran from March until July 1896, leaving Wood enough time to prepare the second Queen's Hall season, which began at the end of August. The season was so successful that Newman followed it with a winter season of Saturday night promenade concerts, but despite being popular they were not a financial success, and were not repeated in later years. In January 1897 Wood took on the direction of the Queen's Hall's prestigious Saturday afternoon symphony concerts. He continually presented new works by composers of many nationalities, and was particularly known for his skill in Russian music. Sullivan wrote to him in 1898, "I have never heard a finer performance in England than that of the Tchaikovsky symphony under your direction last Wednesday". Seventy-five years later, Sir Adrian Boult ranked Wood as one of the two greatest Tchaikovsky conductors in his long experience. Wood also successfully challenged the widespread belief that Englishmen were not capable of conducting Wagner. When Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra performed at Windsor Castle in November 1898, Queen Victoria chose Tchaikovsky and Wagner for the programme. Wood, who modelled his appearance on Nikisch, took it as a compliment that the queen said to him, "Tell me, Mr Wood, are you quite English?"In 1898, Wood married one of his singing pupils, Olga Michailoff, a divorcee a few months his senior. Jacobs describes it as "a marriage of perfect professional and private harmony". As a singer, with Wood as her accompanist, she won praise from the critics., what would be the answer ?

A: Shamus O'Brien

Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the last name of the person who found critical and commercial success in Paris?, using the article: Kertesz emigrated to Paris in September 1925, leaving behind his mother, his unofficial fiancee Elizabeth, both brothers, and his uncle Hoffman, who died shortly afterward. Jeno later emigrated to Argentina. Elizabeth Kertesz remained until her future husband was well enough established in Paris that they could marry. Kertesz was among numerous Hungarian artists who emigrated during these decades, including Francois Kollar, Robert Capa, Emeric Feher, Brassai, and Julia Bathory. Man Ray, Germaine Krull and Lucien Aigner also emigrated to Paris during this period. Initially Kertesz took on commissioned work for several European magazines, gaining publication of his work in Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain. Soon after arriving in Paris, Kertesz changed his first name to Andre, which he kept for the rest of his life. In Paris he found critical and commercial success. In 1927 Kertesz was the first photographer to have a one-man exhibition; Jan Slivinsky presented 30 of his photographs at the "Sacre du Printemps Gallery". Kertesz had become connected with members of the growing Dada movement. Paul Dermee dubbed him "Brother Seer" and "Brother Seeing Eye" during his first solo exhibit, alluding to a medieval monastery where all the monks were blind bar one. Over the next years, Kertesz was featured in both solo exhibits and group shows. In 1932 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, the price of Kertesz's proofs was set at US$20 ($ 367 in 2019), a large sum of money during the Great Depression.Kertesz and other Hungarian artists formed a synergistic circle; he was featured in exhibits with some of them later in his life. Visiting his sculptor friends, he was fascinated by the Cubism movement. He created photo portraits of painters Piet Mondrian and Marc Chagall, the writer Colette, and film-maker Sergei Eisenstein. In 1928, Kertesz switched from using plate-glass cameras to a Leica. This period of work was one of his most productive; he was photographing daily, with work divided between magazine..., what would be the answer ?

A: Kertesz

Problem: A friend asked me to answer this question: What was the English name of the sport that Emperor Basil I excelled at?, using the article: Byzantines were avid players of tavli (Byzantine Greek: ), a game known in English as backgammon, which is still popular in former Byzantine realms, and still known by the name tavli in Greece. Byzantine nobles were devoted to horsemanship, particularly tzykanion, now known as polo. The game came from Sassanid Persia in the early period and a Tzykanisterion (stadium for playing the game) was built by Theodosius II (r. 408450) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople. Emperor Basil I (r. 867886) excelled at it; Emperor Alexander (r. 912913) died from exhaustion while playing, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 10811118) was injured while playing with Tatikios, and John I of Trebizond (r. 12351238) died from a fatal injury during a game. Aside from Constantinople and Trebizond, other Byzantine cities also featured tzykanisteria, most notably Sparta, Ephesus, and Athens, an indication of a thriving urban aristocracy. The game was introduced to the West by crusaders, who developed a taste for it particularly during the pro-Western reign of emperor Manuel I Komnenos., what would be the answer ?

A:
polo