Round 2: Tossup 15

Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini feuded over the right to conduct this opera at the Met shortly before Mahler left for the New York Philharmonic. During the long love duet in Act 2 of this opera, the lovers ignore when an offstage mezzo-soprano warns them that night will end soon. A shepherd says “bleak and empty is the sea” in Act 3 of this opera, which begins with a long English horn solo. In this opera’s last scene, which was originally titled “Transfiguration,” the lead soprano gazes upon her lover’s dead body while addressing her servant Brangäne (“bron-GAY-nuh”). A half-diminished chord spelled as “F, B, D-sharp, G-sharp” finally resolves in this opera’s concluding “Liebestod.” For 10 points, name this pioneering Wagner opera (10[1])about the romance between a Cornish knight and an Irish princess. ■END■ (10[2]0[1])

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