A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the name of the work that would be Puccini's first setting of a comic text?, 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 ?
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Answer: Gianni Schicchi


A friend asked me to answer this question: Who ran into Manny Vassey's sadistic son?, using the article: Joe Denton, a corrupt ex-cop, is released from jail. Six years earlier, while on the mob's payroll, Denton attacked district attorney Phil Coakley, earning him the enmity of the police and the nickname "slash cop". After finding his ex-wife has left the city with their children, he moves in with his elderly parents. Denton researches his ex-wife on the internet, eventually digging up a phone number. After briefly talking to one of his daughters, his ex-wife takes the phone and threatens to press charges if he ever contacts them again. Denton passes a bar on his way back home. Although a recovering alcoholic, he enters and orders a drink.  His friend Scotty, the brother of Denton's slain partner, greets him and offers him any help he needs. A young woman asks Denton for a ride home. Denton is surprised when she reveals herself to be Coakley's daughter and intentionally bloodies herself. Cued by her cries for help, two men drag Denton from his car; Denton beats both men savagely. After Denton is questioned by the police, Coakley admits the evidence backs up his story and reluctantly asks if Denton wants to press charges. Denton declines, saying he wants to leave his history in the past, to the disgust of Coakley and Lieutenant Pleasant, who calls him a disgrace. Pleasant, revealed to also be corrupt, demands Denton kill mob boss Manny Vassey, who has found religion on his deathbed. Pleasant explains Vassey's guilty conscience may lead him to confess to Coakley. Pleasant promises to help Denton renegotiate the terms of the settlement with his ex-wife if he kills Vassey.  At his house, Vassey denies the rumors. As Vassey falls asleep, Denton begins to suffocate him, only to be interrupted by Charlotte Boyd, Vassey's hospice nurse. Denton smoothly thanks her for her work and leaves the house, where he encounters Vassey's sadistic son, Junior. Junior threatens to kill Denton, enraged that Vassey would see him while avoiding his own son., what would be the answer ?
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Answer: Joe Denton


A friend asked me to answer this question: What is the first name of the person who picked which version of the text to reprint?, using the article: The "magnificent and accurate" Shakespeare edition which Boydell began in 1786 was to be the focus of his enterprise—he viewed the print folio and the gallery as offshoots of the main project. In an advertisement prefacing the first volume of the edition, Nicol wrote that "splendor and magnificence, united with correctness of text were the great objects of this Edition".  The volumes themselves were handsome, with gilded pages that, unlike those in previous scholarly editions, were unencumbered by footnotes.  Each play had its own title page followed by a list of "Persons in the Drama".   Boydell spared no expense.  He hired the typography experts William Bulmer and William Martin to develop and cut a new typeface specifically for the edition.  Nicol explains in the preface that they "established a printing-house ... [and] a foundry to cast the types; and even a manufactory to make the ink". Boydell also chose to use high-quality wove Whatman paper. The illustrations were printed independently and could be inserted and removed as the purchaser desired. The first volumes of the Dramatic Works were published in 1791 and the last in 1805. Boydell was responsible for the "splendor", and George Steevens, the general editor, was responsible for the "correctness of text". Steevens, according to Evelyn Wenner, who has studied the history of the Boydell edition, was "at first an ardent advocate of the plan" but "soon realized that the editor of this text must in the very scheme of things give way to painters, publishers and engravers". He was also ultimately disappointed in the quality of the prints, but he said nothing to jeopardize the edition's sales. Steevens, who had already edited two complete Shakespeare editions, was not asked to edit the text anew; instead, he picked which version of the text to reprint. Wenner describes the resulting hybrid edition: The thirty-six plays, printed from the texts of Reed and Malone, divide into the following three groups: (1) five plays of the first three numbers printed from..., what would be the answer ?
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Answer:
George