Final Jeopardy: Rhyme Time: Opera Version (5-8-24)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/8/2024) in the category “Rhyme Time: Opera Version” was:
Telling the story of a duke, a jester & the jester’s daughter, it was written by poet Francesco Maria Piave
New champ Allison Gross, a data scientist from Cleveland, OH, won $9,599 yesterday. In Game 2, she takes on these two players: Kelcy López Freeman, a hospital pharmacist from Atlanta, GA; and Ben Mills, an operations director from Philadelphia, PA
Round 1 Categories: Nursery Rhyme Characters – The Planets – Words with Silent Consonants – That’s Bananas – A Rapper’s Delight – The Folks in “I.T.”
Ben found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Planets” under the $1,000 clue on the 12th pick of the round. He was in second place with $1,000, $1,200 less than Kelcy’s lead. Ben bet $1,000 and said Venus. That was WRONG.
Weak gravity there has led to the tallest-known volcanoes in the solar system show
Allison finished in the lead with $4,400. Kelcy was second with $2,600 and Ben was last with $600. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: 18th Century America – A Little World Lit – Tiers – TV & Movie Moms – Close – Quarters
Ben found the first Daily Double in “Close” under the $1,600 clue on the 3rd pick of the round. He was in last place with $3,600, $800 less than Allison’s lead. Ben bet $2,000 but had no response so he was WRONG.
It sounds ordinal, but it means soon to happen, or in another sense, frank & cooperative show
Allison found the last Daily Double in “18th Century America” under the $1,200 clue on the 15th pick of the round. She was in the lead with $12,400, $3,800 more than Kelcy in second place. Allison bet $4,000 and guessed Allegheny. That was WRONG.
This horse-drawn wagon named for a Pennsylvania river, was first used in the early 1700s & had a curved floor & a white canvas top show
Allison finished in the lead with $12,400. Kelcy was second with $9.000 but her score dropped to $7,400 after a reversal (see below). Ben was last with $3,200. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS RIGOLETTO LIBRETTO?
Francesco Maria Piave wrote the Italian libretto for Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera “Rigoletto” (1851), which was adapted from Victor Hugo’s play “Le roi s’amuse” (1832). Rigoletto is the jester who does not want his daughter, Gilda, to be seduced by the Duke of Mantua, a notorious rake. But Gilda falls under the Duke’s spell all the same, with tragic results.
Even if you have never seen “Rigoletto”, it’s quite likely that you have heard “La donna e mobile”, its most famous number. It has been used in many a cartoon and commercial. The first 3 minutes or so of the above video explain the real meaning of the Duke’s canzone.
Ben had no response. He lost nothing, standing pat on $3,200.
Kelcy also drew a blank. She lost $2,600 and finished with $4,800.
Allison tried Don Juan. She lost $2,401, winning this game with the remaining $9,999. Allison’s 2-day total is $19,598.
Reversal: TV & MOVIE MOMS ($800) This sitcom character was mom to Becky, Darlene & D.J. – Ken accepted Kelcy’s response of actress Rosanne Barr, who played Rosanne Conner, the sitcom character. The judges said ix-nay.
A triple stumper from each round:
A RAPPER’S DELIGHT ($600) Will Smith trained in this pastime with Grandmaster Maurice Ashley
A LITTLE WORLD LIT ($1200) The devil in disguise exposes Soviet hypocrisy in Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and” her
2 years ago: BOTH players left in FJ got this one in “THE CIVIL WAR”
A Union soldiers’ song said General McClellan, who let a Confederate Army escape after this battle, “was too slow to beat ’em” show
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The FJ solution was “Rigoletto libretto”.
I ran the I.T. category. Was 2/3 on DD, #1 and #3.
That was quite the error by Ken, on the Roseanne clue. Remarkable, actually.
Yes, on re-evaluation, and in consultation with my wife, wow, what a clunker! That DJ gets one thumb down, with a second tentative.
Calling the FJ answer a rhyme was a stretch, no? My guess was Pagliacci.
Many stumpers again tonight. The stumper planet figured to be the farthest of the current 8. The Russian author was fairly simple since it was an I.T. The 14-letter “Close” clue was a gimme, and Olympics sites are something people should study, just like presidential elections and capitals. The summer games that year were in LA, the first of what will be 3X. I caught some track and field action in 1984.
I missed a few really easy clues during regular Jeopardy, and partly because some of them were in error. In one such case, it takes sunlight 3.2 minutes to reach the planet Mercury, and not the 4 minutes as stated in one of the clues.. I thought huh? Anyways, I flubbed the FJ.
That FJ! clue was a real clunker. Boo hiss. The category has never been used in the regular game so far. If it was, I believe it would either be accompanied by an explanation or the contestants would know what to expect after flubbing the first clue.
Totally agree
VJ, I would beg to disagree as I thought that the FJ was still fair game. Believe me, I have seen a precious few FJs that would fit the category (clunkers) as you described.
All the DDs were missed and a triple stumper in the final resulted our first epic fail on wagering clues since Independence Day 2023 and our seventh DD skunking of the season. I hope William Weyser will say darn those daily doubles to Ben.
Final Jeopardy triple stumper on 2024 Jeopardy Masters Quarterfinals #4.
Correction: Quarterfinal Game 6