By 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was internationally renowned as the c

Question

By 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was internationally renowned as the composer of Marriage of Figaro, and consequently received a commission from the Prague Opera House to compose another opera. The resulting product was Don Giovanni, which tells the tale of a criminal and seducer who nevertheless evokes sympathy from audiences, and whose behavior fluctuates from moral crisis to hilarious escapade.

While Don Giovanni is widely considered to be Mozart's greatest achievement, eighteenth century audiences in Vienna — Mozart's own city— were ambivalent at best. The opera mixed traditions of moralism with those of comedy— a practice heretofore unknown among the composer's works— creating a production that was not well liked by conservative Viennese audiences. Meanwhile, however, Don Giovanni was performed to much fanfare throughout Europe.   1 
 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) relate the story of a somewhat likable antihero.
(B) discuss how a work of art has been met by diverging responses.
(C) give a history of the work of Mozart.
(D) make a case for the renown of Don Giovanni.
(E) emphasize the moral aspects of a musical work.
 2 
 2. The author mentions the mixing of "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" primarily in order to

(A) explain a work's cool reception among a particular group of people.
(B) remind the reader of the plot of Don Giovanni.
(C) highlight a practice common in contemporary opera.
(D) argue for an innovative approach to opera.
(E) undermine a previously presented assertion.
 3 
 3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true about the response of Viennese audiences to Don Giovanni?

(A) The audiences preferred purely moralistic works.
(B) The response was unequivocally positive.
(C) They did not know that the composer was attempting to mix musical styles.
(D) The play's moral themes were offensive to Viennese audiences.
(E) To say that the response was "mixed" would be a generous interpretation.

Difficulty Level:   700    (269)

Sajjad1994 · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

Difficulty Level:   650

Explanation

In main idea questions, you can often eliminate one or more answers just based on the first word or phrase: relate, discuss, give a history, make a case, emphasize. Does the passage  “make a case”?  It doesn’t — like almost all GMAT passages, it is merely reporting facts and/or the opinions of others. Emphasize is also a bit strange— usually, the purpose of a passage is something a little bigger than just  “emphasizing”  something.

When you read and diagrammed the passage, you may have determined that  paragraph 1  simply gives background information about Don Giovanni, while  paragraph 2  gives the  “twist”  — even though almost the whole world loved Don Giovanni, people in Mozarts own hometown were a lot less into it.   Choice (B) matches this:   the passages discusses how a work of art (the opera) has been met by diverging (different, diverse) responses, specifically those of Viennese audiences versus those of everyone else.

Answer: B

2. The author mentions the mixing of "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" primarily in order to

Difficulty Level:   750

Explanation

The full sentence is,   “The opera mixed traditions of moraiism with those of comedy— a practice heretofore unknown among the composers works— creating a production that was not well liked by conservative Viennese audiences.” You can get two facts about “mixing traditions of moraiism with those of comedy”  :

•  “a practice heretofore unknown among the composers works”  = Mozart had not done this before
•  “not well liked by conservative Viennese audiences”  = Viennese audiences did not like this because it was a departure from tradition

Correct answer (A)   is a good match— a  “cool reception”  means that those who  “received”  something (the audience) were holding back or hostile (think  “emotionally cold.” ) Note that the GMAT is trying to hide the correct answer from you a little bit by saying  “a particular group o f people” for “Viennese audiences.”  Also note that  (D)  and  (E)  could be eliminated straightaway— the author does not  “argue”  or  “undermine”  (which would mean the author was arguing) at any point. Obviously, talking about moraiism and comedy doesn’t  “remind the reader of the plot”  ( choice B ), and you have no idea (from the passage, at least) what is common in contemporary (modern) opera, so  (C)  is out of scope.

Answer: A

3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true about the response of Viennese audiences to Don Giovanni?

Difficulty Level:   650

Explanation

You know that Viennese audiences did not like the (new) mixing of moraiism and comedy because the audiences were  “conservative.”  But there’s an even better clue: the passage says  “eighteenth century audiences in Vienna— Mozart’s own city— were ambivalent at best.”  Ambivalent means having mixed feelings or undecided. At best is an expression meaning or worse. The expression a generous interpretation has a similar meaning {To say he manages by intuition rather than logic is a generous interpretation means the manager is probably an irrational person who just goes with his feelings, in a bad way).

(E) is a direct match with a sentence from the passage.   Note that  (A)  and  (B)  contain extreme language (purely, unequivocally). Choices  (C)  and  (D)  go too far. You have no indication that audiences were confused or offended, merely that they didn’t like or had mixed feelings about a work of art.

Answer: E

Hope it Helps

aragonn · Answer

P1 - M + don giovanni + about it.
P2 - DG was famous but with opposition.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) relate the story of a somewhat likable antihero. --- cant say anti hero; relate the story is also not so good.
(B) discuss how a work of art has been met by diverging responses. --- can be; P1 covers the art work, while P2 is about diverging response. best of the lot. 
(C) give a history of the work of Mozart. --- more or so P1
(D) make a case for the renown of Don Giovanni. ---- no 
(E) emphasize the moral aspects of a musical work. ---- no

------------------------------------------

2. The author mentions the mixing of "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" primarily in order to

While Don Giovanni is widely considered to be Mozart's greatest achievement, eighteenth century audiences in Vienna — Mozart's own city— were ambivalent at best. The opera mixed traditions of moralism with those of comedy— a practice heretofore unknown among the composer's works

Pre-think - mainly this is mentioned cause a new concept introduced - moralism + comedy - a group like it, while another don't.

(A) explain a work's cool reception among a particular group of people. ---- best of the lot.

--------------------------------------------------

3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true about the response of Viennese audiences to Don Giovanni?

eighteenth century audiences in Vienna were ambivalent (mixed feeling) at best

(E) To say that the response was "mixed" would be a generous interpretation.

tapasgupta · Answer

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) relate the story of a somewhat likable antihero.  - out of scope
 (B) discuss how a work of art has been met by diverging responses.  stated in the 2 nd para
 (C) give a history of the work of Mozart.  - not the primary purpose. the responses are discussed.
 (D) make a case for the renown of Don Giovanni.  - out of scope
 (E) emphasize the moral aspects of a musical work.  - out of scope

2. The author mentions the mixing of "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" primarily in order to

(A) explain a work's cool reception among a particular group of people.  - liked in Europe but not well liked in Vienna
 (B) remind the reader of the plot of Don Giovanni.  - out of scope
 (C) highlight a practice common in contemporary opera.  - opposite
 (D) argue for an innovative approach to opera.  - Inconsistent
 (E) undermine a previously presented assertion.  - out of scope

3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true about the response of Viennese audiences to Don Giovanni?

(A) The audiences preferred purely moralistic works.  -out of scope
 (B) The response was unequivocally positive. - extreme
 (C) They did not know that the composer was attempting to mix musical styles.  - out of scope
 (D) The play's moral themes were offensive to Viennese audiences.  - extreme
 (E) To say that the response was "mixed" would be a generous interpretation.  - "ambivalent" from 2nd para

Skywalker18 · Answer

Completed the passage under 5 mins, including almost 2 mins to read.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(B) discuss how a work of art has been met by diverging responses. - Correct
While Don Giovanni is widely considered to be Mozart's greatest achievement, eighteenth-century audiences in Vienna — Mozart's own city— were ambivalent at best

3. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true about the response of Viennese audiences to Don Giovanni?
(E) To say that the response was "mixed" would be a generous interpretation. - Correct
While Don Giovanni is widely considered to be Mozart's greatest achievement,  eighteenth-century audiences in Vienna — Mozart's own city— were ambivalent at best

2. The author mentions the mixing of "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" primarily in order to

(A) explain a work's cool reception among a particular group of people.
(B) remind the reader of the plot of Don Giovanni.
(C) highlight a practice common in contemporary opera. - Incorrect - the passage does not say that it was a common practice
(D) argue for an innovative approach to opera. - Incorrect
(E) undermine a previously presented assertion. - Incorrect

For question 2, I chose option B. Please provide your solution on Q2.

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyMurray

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi Skywalker18 , Happy to help

For Q2, the relevant part of the passage is here: The opera mixed traditions of moralism with those of comedy— a practice heretofore unknown among the composer's works— creating a production that was not well liked by conservative Viennese audiences. This sentence indicates the link between "traditions of moralism with those of comedy" and the fact that it was not well liked by the conservative audiences in Vienna. The fact that these traditions were mixed created something that was not well liked by these audiences. That word "creating" indicates a cause and effect relationship -- the audience did not like the opera because it mixed these traditions. So we can infer that this was the reason that the author mentions mixing traditions: to explain why some people did not like the opera. In contrast, while this phrase might remind us of the plot of Don Giovanni, there's no reason for the author to do so here; it's not serving any purpose. It's not like the author is then going on to discuss some aspect of the plot any further. So we can't conclude that the author is purposely trying to remind us of the plot, because there's no support for that in the passage. We always want to look for supporting clues elsewhere in the passage if we can. So A is a better choice than B here. I hope that helps!

-Carolyn

Pratheek95 · Answer

Hi,

For Q1, Can someone explain the reason as to why Option 3 can be eliminated?

Thought: Since a history would include why it was created, the first para also comes into the picture while the second option considers only the last part of the final para

goofytiwari69 · Answer

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) relate the story of a somewhat likable antihero.
(B) discuss how a work of art has been met by diverging responses.
(C) give a history of the work of Mozart.
(D) make a case for the renown of Don Giovanni.
(E) emphasize the moral aspects of a musical work.

you are right after elimination we are left with 2 options ie option B and C. if you re read theparas it becomes clear that the emphasis is not on Mozart but on the diverging responses of Don Giovanni. also the first para is used as an introduction and is about Mozart's renowned Marriage of Figaro and how he was commissioned to compose another opera.

dynmoz · Answer

Hi, 
For Q1, how can we conclude that opera is a" work of art" ? It is no where mentioned in the passage.

bM22 · Answer

Hi  dynmoz ,

"Opera" is a form of theatre in literal terms, it can be considered as a "work of art" as well. With respect to the answer here for Question 1, I used process of elimination, and could easily eliminate options A, D and E. Now between B and C, we can reject C, as the focus of the passage is not on the history of the work of Mozart, thus B is a better answer.

Hope This Helps.
Thanks.

VerbalBot · Answer

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By 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was internationally renowned as the c

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