Problem: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the first name of the person who used Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters, objects and ideas?  Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances. Despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public. Musically, Tosca is structured as a through-composed work, with arias, recitative, choruses and other elements musically woven into a seamless whole. Puccini used Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters, objects and ideas. While critics have often dismissed the opera as a facile melodrama with confusions of plot—musicologist Joseph Kerman called it a "shabby little shocker"—the power of its score and the inventiveness of its orchestration have been widely acknowledged. The dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas. Many recordings of the work have been issued, both of studio and live performances.

A: Giacomo


Problem: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: Who's father did the tech mogul save?  In the five years since the previous film, Fin has moved to a farm in Kansas named "April's Acres," where he lives with his mother Raye and young son Gil. April is believed dead after being crushed by the wreckage of the space shuttle. Tech mogul Aston Reynolds (based on Tesla, Inc. co-founder and SpaceX founder Elon Musk) has developed a new type of high-speed space travel with his company Astro-X (a play on SpaceX), which was used to save Fin's father, Colonel Gilbert Shepard, from the moon. Astro-X has also developed a technology that is capable of using radio waves to diffuse tornadoes, leading to the end of the sharknado phenomenon. Fin travels to Molong with his cousin Gemini to meet up with his son Matt, who has returned from deployment in Iraq. Meanwhile, Reynolds has built and is opening a shark-themed hotel featuring a giant tank of sharks. While Matt and his fiancée, Gabrielle, marry and skydive from a plane, a sandstorm tornado develops that cannot be diffused by Astro-X. The tornado absorbs the water and sharks from Reynolds' hotel, creating the first sharknado in five years. The streets of Las Vegas flood, but Fin, Gemini, Gabrielle, and Matt work together to survive the storm until it heads back out into the desert.

A: Fin


Problem: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the full name of the creator of the style that is thought to be the first to descend from the one reported in a journal in 1849?  Hachijō-daiko (八丈太鼓, trans. "Hachijō-style taiko") is a taiko tradition originating on the island of Hachijō-jima. Two styles of Hachijō-daiko emerged and have been popularized among residents: an older tradition based on a historical account, and a newer tradition influenced by mainland groups and practiced by the majority of the islanders.The Hachijō-daiko tradition was documented as early as 1849 based on a journal kept by an exile named Kakuso Kizan. He mentioned some of its unique features, such as "a taiko is suspended from a tree while women and children gathered around", and observed that a player used either side of the drum while performing. Illustrations from Kizan's journal show features of Hachijō-daiko. These illustrations also featured women performing, which is unusual as taiko performance elsewhere during this period was typically reserved for men. Teachers of the tradition have noted that the majority of its performers were women; one estimate asserts that female performers outnumbered males by three to one. The first style of Hachijō-daiko is thought to descend directly from the style reported by Kizan. This style is called Kumaoji-daiko, named after its creator Okuyama Kumaoji, a central performer of the style. Kumaoji-daiko has two players on a single drum, one of whom, called the shita-byōshi (下拍子, "lower beat"), provides the underlying beat. The other player, called the uwa-byōshi (上拍子, "upper beat"), builds on this rhythmical foundation with unique and typically improvised rhythms. While there are specific types of underlying rhythms, the accompanying player is free to express an original musical beat. Kumaoji-daiko also features an unusual positioning for taiko: the drums are sometimes suspended from ropes, and historically, sometimes drums were suspended from trees.The contemporary style of Hachijō-daiko is called shin-daiko (新太鼓, "new taiko"), which differs from Kumaoji-daiko in multiple ways.  For instance, while the lead and accompanying roles are still present, shin-daiko...

A:
Okuyama Kumaoji