Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the first name of the person who rates Saint-Saens's operas as important in the history of French opera? Discounting his collaboration with Dukas in the completion of Guiraud's unfinished Fredegonde, Saint-Saens wrote twelve operas, two of which are operas comiques. During the composer's lifetime his Henry VIII became a repertory piece; since his death only Samson et Dalila has been regularly staged, although according to Schonberg, Ascanio (1890) is considered by experts to be a much finer work. The critic Ronald Crichton writes that for all his experience and musical skill, Saint-Saens "lacked the 'nose' of the theatre animal granted, for example, to Massenet who in other forms of music was his inferior". In a 2005 study, the musical scholar Steven Huebner contrasts the two composers: "Saint-Saens obviously had no time for Massenet's histrionics". Saint-Saens's biographer James Harding comments that it is regrettable that the composer did not attempt more works of a light-hearted nature, on the lines of La princesse jaune, which Harding describes as like Sullivan "with a light French touch".Although most of Saint-Saens's operas have remained neglected, Crichton rates them as important in the history of French opera, as "a bridge between Meyerbeer and the serious French operas of the early 1890s". In his view, the operatic scores of Saint-Saens have, in general, the strengths and weaknesses of the rest of his music "lucid Mozartian transparency, greater care for form than for content ... There is a certain emotional dryness; invention is sometimes thin, but the workmanship is impeccable." Stylistically, Saint-Saens drew on a range of models. From Meyerbeer he drew the effective use of the chorus in the action of a piece; for Henry VIII he included Tudor music he had researched in London; in La princesse jaune he used an oriental pentatonic scale; from Wagner he derived the use of leitmotifs, which, like Massenet, he used sparingly. Huebner observes that Saint-Saens was more conventional than Massenet so far as through composition is concerned, more often favouring discrete arias and ensembles, with less...
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Answer: Ronald
Q: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the name of the person who McCartney encouraged despite his protests against "flashy drumming"? As the last chord of the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise plays, an acoustic guitar strumming offbeat quavers begins, introducing what Moore describes as "one of the most harrowing songs ever written". "A Day in the Life" consists of four verses by Lennon, a bridge, two aleatoric orchestral crescendos and an interpolated middle part written and sung by McCartney. The first crescendo serves as a segue between the third verse and the middle part, leading to a bridge known as the "dream sequence". The idea to use an orchestra was McCartney's; he drew inspiration from Cage and Stockhausen. The 24-bar crescendos feature forty musicians selected from the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras and tasked with filling the space with what Womack describes as "the sound of pure apocalypse". Martin said that Lennon requested "a tremendous build-up, from nothing up to something absolutely like the end of the world". Lennon recalled drawing inspiration for the lyrics from a newspaper: "I was writing the song with the Daily Mail propped up in front of me at the piano ... there was a paragraph about 4000 [pot]holes in Blackburn, Lancashire". For "A Day in the Life", he wanted his voice to sound like Elvis Presley on "Heartbreak Hotel". Martin and Emerick obliged by adding 90 milliseconds of tape echo. Womack describes Starr's performance as "one of his most inventive drum parts on record", a part that McCartney encouraged him to attempt despite his protests against "flashy drumming". The thunderous piano chord that concludes the track and the album was produced by recording Lennon, Starr, McCartney and Evans simultaneously sounding an E major chord on three separate pianos; Martin then augmented the sound with a harmonium. The final piano chord was recorded 12 days later. Riley characterises the song as a "postlude to the Pepper fantasy ... that sets all the other songs in perspective", while shattering the illusion of "Pepperland" by introducing the "parallel universe of everyday life". MacDonald describes the track as "a song not...
A: Starr
Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the last name of the person who wanders through a jungle? In 1932, a luxury yacht is sailing through a channel off the western coast of South America. The captain is worried about the channel lights not matching the charts, but is quickly dissuaded from changing course by the wealthy passengers for the sake of time, including famous big game hunter and author Bob Rainsford. It is a calm evening, with the cheerful passengers relaxing over drinks and a game of cards. Bob and his companions are debating about whether hunting is at all sporting for the animal being hunted after a friend asks if he would exchange places with a tiger he had recently hunted in Africa. Bob replies that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who hunt and those who are hunted. The ship suddenly runs aground, causing the ship to take on water and heave violently. Water floods the boiler room, causing the ship to explode and sink into the channel. Rainsford and two others manage to get away and cling to wreckage, but the other survivors are eaten by a shark. He swims to a small, lush island. Wandering through the jungle, he sees the channel lights off the shoreline change, and suspects the ship was deliberately led off course to its doom. He stumbles across a luxury chateau where he becomes the guest of the expatriate Russian Count Zaroff, a fellow hunting enthusiast. Zaroff remarks that Rainsford's misfortune is not uncommon; in fact, four people from the previous sinking are still staying with him: Eve Trowbridge, her brother Martin, and two sailors. That night, Zaroff introduces Rainsford to the Trowbridges and reveals his obsession with hunting. During one of his hunts, a Cape buffalo inflicted a head wound on him. He eventually became bored with the sport, to his great consternation, until he discovered "the most dangerous game" on his island. Rainsford asks if he means tigers, but Zaroff denies it.
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Answer:
Rainsford