[Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the name of the sculpture that was broken into three pieces?  Altar 1 is found at the base of Stela 1. It is rectangular in shape with carved molding on its side.Altar 2 is of unknown provenance, having been moved to outside the administrator's house on the San Isidro Piedra Parada plantation. It is 1.59 metres (63 in) long, about 0.9 metres (35 in) wide and about 0.5 metres (20 in) high. It represents an animal variously identified as a toad and a jaguar. The body of the animal was sculptured to form a hollow 85 centimetres (33 in) across and 26 centimetres (10 in) deep. The sculpture was broken into three pieces.Altar 3 is a roughly worked flat, circular altar about 1 metre (39 in) across and 0.3 metres (12 in) high. It was probably associated originally with a stela but its original location is unknown, it was moved near to the manager's house on the San Isidro Piedra Parada plantation.Altar 5 is a damaged plain circular altar associated with Stela 2.Altar 7 is near the southern edge of the plaza on Terrace 3, where it is one of five monuments in a line running east-west.Altar 8 is a plain monument associated with Stela 5, positioned on the west side of Structure 12.Altar 9 is a low four-legged throne placed in front of Structure 11.Altar 10 was associated with Stela 13 and was found on top of the large offering of ceramics associated with that stela and the royal tomb in Structure 7A. The monument was originally a throne with cylindrical supports that was reused as an altar in the Classic period.Altar 12 is carved in the early Maya style and archaeologists consider it to be an especially early example dating to the first part of the Late Preclassic. Because of the carvings on the upper face of the altar, it is supposed that the monument was originally erected as a vertical stela in the Late Preclassic, and was reused as a horizontal altar in the Classic. At this time 16 hieroglyphs were carved around the outer rim of the altar. The carving on the upper face of the altar represents a standing human figure portrayed in profile, facing left. The figure is flanked by...
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[A]: Altar 2


[Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What was the first name of the person who was only fourteen when wed?  At the court in Ferrara, a collection of ladies skilled in music inspired the composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi and caught the Duke's interest. This group, which led to the formation of the concerto delle donne, performed within the context of the Duke's musica secreta, a regular series of chamber music concerts performed for an exclusive audience. This preliminary group was originally made up of talented but amateur members of the court: the sisters Lucrezia and Isabella Bendidio, Leonora Sanvitale, and Vittoria Bentivoglio. They were joined by bass Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, who was specifically brought to the court in 1577 for his singing ability. The preliminary ensemble was active throughout the 1570s, and its membership solidified in 1577. Only later did professionals replace these original singers. The Duke did not announce the creation of a professional, all-female ensemble; instead, the group infiltrated and gradually dominated the musica secreta, so that after the dismissal of Brancaccio for insubordination in 1583, no more male members of the musica secreta were hired. Even when Brancaccio was performing with the consort it was referred to as a ladies' ensemble, because women singing together was the most exciting aspect of the group. This new ensemble, the concerto delle donne, was created by Alfonso in part to amuse his young new wife, Margherita Gonzaga d'Este (she was only fourteen when they wed in 1579), and in part to help the Duke achieve his artistic goals for the court. According to Grana, a contemporary correspondent, "Signora Machiavella [Lucrezia], Signora Isabella, and Signora Vittoria have abandoned the field, having lost the backing of Luzzaschi". The first recorded performance by the professional ladies was on November 20, 1580; by carnival season in 1581, they were performing together regularly.This new "consort of ladies" was viewed as an extraordinary and novel phenomenon; most witnesses did not connect the second period of the concerto delle donne with the group of ladies who sang in...
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[A]: Margherita Gonzaga d'Este


[Q]: Read the following paragraph and extract the answer for the question: What is the name of the person that composed the four-act "drame lyricque", Le timbre d'argent?  For a French composer of the 19th century, opera was seen as the most important type of music. Saint-Saëns's younger contemporary and rival, Massenet, was beginning to gain a reputation as an operatic composer, but Saint-Saëns, with only the short and unsuccessful La princesse jaune staged, had made no mark in that sphere. In February 1877, he finally had a full-length opera staged. His four-act "drame lyricque", Le timbre d'argent ("The Silver Bell"), to Jules Barbier's and Michel Carré's libretto, reminiscent of the Faust legend, had been in rehearsal in 1870, but the outbreak of war halted the production. The work was eventually presented by the Théâtre Lyrique company of Paris; it ran for eighteen performances.The dedicatee of the opera, Albert Libon, died three months after the premiere, leaving Saint-Saëns a large legacy "To free him from the slavery of the organ of the Madeleine and to enable him to devote himself entirely to composition". Saint-Saëns, unaware of the imminent bequest, had resigned his position shortly before his friend died. He was not a conventional Christian, and found religious dogma increasingly irksome; he had become tired of the clerical authorities' interference and musical insensitivity; and he wanted to be free to accept more engagements as a piano soloist in other cities. After this he never played the organ professionally in a church service, and rarely played the instrument at all. He composed a Messe de Requiem in memory of his friend, which was performed at Saint-Sulpice to mark the first anniversary of Libon's death; Charles-Marie Widor played the organ and Saint-Saëns conducted. In December 1877, Saint-Saëns had a more solid operatic success, with Samson et Dalila, his one opera to gain and keep a place in the international repertoire. Because of its biblical subject, the composer had met many obstacles to its presentation in France, and through Liszt's influence the premiere was given at Weimar in a German translation. Although the work eventually became an...
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[A]:
Saint-Saëns