A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the name of the person who wrote his Second Symphony in 1927?, using the article: After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer, but his dry style of playing was often unappreciated (his American biographer, Laurel Fay, comments on his "emotional restraint" and "riveting rhythmic drive"). He nevertheless won an "honorable mention" at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He attributed the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and the jury being all-Polish. He had his appendix removed in April 1927. After the competition Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer's First Symphony that he conducted it at its Berlin premiere later that year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and gave the work its U.S. premiere the following year in Philadelphia and also made the work's first recording. Shostakovich concentrated on composition thereafter and soon limited his performances primarily to those of his own works. In 1927 he wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October), a patriotic piece with a great pro-Soviet choral finale. Owing to its experimental nature, as with the subsequent Third Symphony, it was not critically acclaimed with the enthusiasm given to the First. 1927 also marked the beginning of Shostakovich's relationship with Ivan Sollertinsky, who remained his closest friend until the latter's death in 1944. Sollertinsky introduced the composer to the music of Mahler, which had a strong influence on his music from the Fourth Symphony onwards. While writing the Second Symphony, Shostakovich also began work on his satirical opera The Nose, based on the story by Nikolai Gogol. In June 1929, against the composer's own wishes, the opera was given a concert performance; it was ferociously attacked by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM). Its stage premiere on 18 January 1930 opened to generally poor reviews and widespread incomprehension among musicians.In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked at TRAM, a..., what would be the answer ?
Ans: Shostakovich

A friend asked me to answer this question: Who does Gates ask to catch his brother-in-law smoking or drinking?, using the article: A wealthy Los Angeles land developer, Monte Peterson, travels to Utah hoping to open a ski resort after his third marriage ends in divorce. He competes against an "evil" banker, Preston Gates, hoping to snatch land from the defaulting farmers to gain control for mob investors who want to build a casino. After winning a land auction, Monte's friend explains the polygamous traditions of the area. Monte must join the church to purchase the land. He learns the property he has bought includes the former owner's wives, which upsets Monte greatly until he gets a look at the women. Monte marries all three and is excited until he discovers how difficult it is to please young amorous wives and also how terrible their cooking is. He develops methods to care for them in a fair manner. He learns that one wife is a twin sister to a wife of banker Gates, making Gates his brother-in-law. Gates is in cahoots with a Las Vegas mobster, Tony Morano, who assures him that his armed henchman "Shuffles" will handle matters if Gates does not. After another resident passes away, Gates attempts to take control of the deceased owner's land along with his two widows by calling in unpaid debts. Monte is reluctant to marry yet again until he sees these two women are extremely skilled in the kitchen, thus he ends up with several more acres of land and two more wives. Monte retires the debt of their first husband, thus once again thwarting Gates, who sought repossession of the mortgaged lands over repayment of the debt. Gates, frustrated, has his associate Stewart try to catch Monte in the act of smoking or drinking to get him excommunicated from the church and kicked out of town. As a treat, Monte takes his wives for a honeymoon to Las Vegas, introducing them to gambling and other joys of the modern world like tennis and bikinis., what would be the answer ?
Ans: Stewart

A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the name of the composer who Giovacchino Forzano presented with two works of his own, which became Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi?, using the article: The one-act opera genre had become increasingly popular in Italy following the 1890 competition sponsored by publisher Edoardo Sonzogno for the best such work, which was won by the young Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. With Tosca essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among sources he considered, before proceeding with Madama Butterfly, were three works by French dramatist Alphonse Daudet that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas.After Butterfly premiered in 1904, Puccini again had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together, but found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer then planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, on an opera about Marie Antoinette, a project frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it? [Maria Antonietta] If I find three one-act works that suit me, I'll put off M.A." Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa's illness led to his death in September 1906.In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi's representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. By May the composer had set aside this proposal to concentrate on the project which became La fanciulla del West, although he did not wholly abandon the idea of a multiple-opera evening. His next idea in this vein, some years later, was for a two-opera bill, one tragic and one comic; he later expanded this to include a third opera with a mystic or religious tone. By November 1916 Puccini had completed the "tragic" element, which became Il tabarro, but he still lacked ideas for the other two works. He considered staging Il tabarro in combination with his own early work Le Villi, or with other two-act operas which might be used to round out the evening's..., what would be the answer ?
Ans: Puccini