Talk:Opera game

I'll look about for the identities of Karl, Herzog von Braunsweig and Comte Isouard, so they can be linked if they get articles. (Also there seems to be some question about which Opera this was, with most accounts saying it was Rossini's Barber of Seville, and Morphy's memoires saying Bellini's Norma??) -- Someone else

Yes, there's some disagreement about that, I seem to remember. I think Edward Winter or some other chess pedant historian, wrote an article on it. I should probably apply for a grant so I can properly research this pressing question. --Camembert

Would it be correct to refer to the Duke as the Duke of Brunswick or as the Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg? I seem to remember that, prior to Queen Victoria, the Sovereign of the United Kingdom was "Elector of Hanover, Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire, and Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg." I presently assume that Karl, Duke of Brunswick, is a descendent of Ernst August, who inherited the Dukedom due to Salic Law. Lord Emsworth 01:03, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

Patience, Lord Emsworth, I'm looking<G>. I think so, though, one site says that he was a descendent of the cryptographer-duke August II Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, presumably by male line, and so presumably Karl, Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg. I too, will investigate the availability of grant money for further research<G>.-- Someone else 01:08, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I don't know if anybody looking at this speaks Dutch (I'm afraid I don't), but this article (http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:dmJ_xym5VQkJ:www.nrc.nl/schaken/artikel/1052975506102.html+%22Edward+winter%22+morphy+isouard&hl=xx-bork&ie=UTF-8) (from the Google cache) seems to raise the possibilities of Rossini's La cenerentola (Cinderella) and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro as being the opera in question (in addition to the aforementioned Norma and Barber of Seville). I'm afraid I can't work out what conclusions (if any) it reaches, however. --Camembert

Hmmm... I believe the librettist for La cenerentola is one Nicolo Isouard who, alas, was dead well before this game. I'm hoping "Comte Isouard" is at least related, for coincidences sake...-- Someone else 01:28, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

The Concise Grove says the libretto is by Jacopo Ferretti, I fear. Apparently, Nicolo Isouard was a composer who himself wrote an operatic version of Cinderella (Cendrillon), so, I don't know, maybe there's a really tortuous link in there somewhere... --Camembert

Well, it will be ever-so-much-the-more-satisfying for having been tortured out<G> -- Someone else 02:10, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Absolutely :) --Camembert

Nicolo Isouard was born in Malta. Perhaps if we find a connection between Comte Isouard and Malta, we might be able to progress somewhat. Lord Emsworth 01:39, Oct 23, 2003 (UTC)

I've been putting Isouard off: he's going to be hard to track down unless a chess reference is more explicit, since Isouard is not "big" in the world of French nobility. I'm thinking the other participant is Karl III of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel: he's at least chronologically fit, and a descendant of Gustavus Selenus. -_ Someone else 02:09, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Wow, there are some very amusing quotes online about this game

An impatient Morphy annihilated his opponents in only 17 moves during The Marriage of figaro, a slaughter that was best described by the great German analyst, Helmut Jüngling, in his pivotal book Matings of the Masters. "This game--if, indeed, it merits the honorable distinction of being called a game--exhibited none of the delicate foreplay of two sensitive virtuosi, but rather the frenzied bestial thumping of an impassioned hart driven to frenzied Wagnerian passions." Morphy, having withdrawn from the world of Chess after only 75 competitive games, suffered from severe bouts of delusions and paranoia before being felled by a stroke while taking a bath on 10 July 1884.

. Almost makes me wish I understood chess well enough to understand what makes this game special>... -- Someone else 02:33, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)~

Wow, "frenzied bestial thumping"... I'm lucky if my games get as far as a polite tapping... --Camembert

where is the pgn?

Try it again - should work now. --Camembert

Who won?

I can't read the algebraic notation and I don't know much about chess. Morphy won, right?. Maybe this fact could appear somewhere in the first paragraph. Also, I wonder why this match mattered and what was so important about the players. --Fazdeconta 16:03, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)