Continuous Quiz: High Brow

[neilmac]

Pirates of Penzance. Sung by the "heroic" police force who had probably just heard their pensions were going to be cut.

[davidmfay]

It was the first great canonical opera to premiere in the US. Within 5 years it had been adapted as a (silent!) Hollywood movie. Which recent centenarian opera?

[neilmac]

I'm going to try Il Fianculla del West.

[davidmfay]

Good man Neil that's the one (based on play/novel by David Belasco). Sorry I seem to have jumped the gun on this thread (it was already your go!) but I now hand over to you in all humility.

[neilmac]

"On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan"
are the last words of which novel?

[NickM]

Is this Moby Dick?

[neilmac]

Correct!

[NickM]

Which writer's works include Why Orwell Matters, Letters to a Young Contrarian and God Is Not Great?

[neilmac]

That sounds like the recently departed Christopher Hitchens.

[NickM]

It is Christopher Hitchens