Today’s offering is by a compiler whose work I have not knowingly encountered before.
One always approaches the work of a “new” setter with a sense of eager anticipation, tinged with nervous anxiety if such an encounter happens to fall on one’s blogging day. In this case, there was a lot more of the latter than the former, as I soon realised that I would finish this puzzle well in time to blog it. It would have been a quicker solve if I had not misspelt 6 and thus been prevented from solving 11!
I enjoyed the puzzle immensely, even if I did find some of the wordplay quite intricate and thus time-consuming to blog. It is always a welcome fringe benefit of solving such themed puzzles that one’s general knowledge is often refreshed and even extended. That was certainly the case for me today, as my knowledge of classical music is patchy to say the least, and I don’t think I had ever fully appreciated the extent to which Verdi drew on Shakespeare for inspiration.
My clues of the day have to be the & lit. at 7 and 9 for its wordplay; the Hindu festival at 17 was new to me, as were the Shakespearean references at 1D. I am not sure if my parsing of 23 is absolutely spot-on, since EC and CE can both mean “church”, and “backing” doesn’t always have to indicate reversal – any thoughts?
In any case, I hope that my next brush with Posa comes sooner rather than later.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HALF | Drink, superficially impressive, knocked back – second’s rejected
FLA<s>H (=superficially impressive; “second (=S)’s rejected” means letter “s” is dropped); “knocked back” indicates reversal |
| 03 | HURDY-GURDY | Former Home Secretary rejected narcotic year after year – one hears this grinding on and on
HURD (=former Home Secretary, i.e. Douglas Hurd) + Y (=year) + GURD (DRUG=narcotic; “rejected” indicates reversal) + Y (=year) |
| 09 | MACBETH | US subject accepting UK honour – from 6 & 12?
CBE (=UK honour) in MATH (=US subject, i.e. maths in US English); Macbeth is an opera by Verdi (=entry at 6) and a play by Shakespeare (=entry at 12) |
| 11 | AQUEOUS | A search terminated early around university flooded with water?
OU (=university, i.e. Open University) in [A + QUES<t> (=search; “terminated early” means last letter dropped)]; cf. the aqueous humour in the eye |
| 12 | SHAKESPEARE | Surprises Molière’s father throttling a playwright
SHAKES (=surprises) + [A in PÈRE (=Molière’s father, i.e. the French for father)] |
| 13 | CHA | Drink robbing fellow of power
CHA<p> (=fellow); “robbing of power (=P)” means letter “p” is dropped |
| 14 | UNBAG | Empty out end of carton carried by university graduate? Good
<carto>N (“end of” means last letter only) in [U (=university) + BA (=graduate) + G (=good)] |
| 16 | FISHPOND | Discovery around shop after storm: quantity of water
*(SHOP) in FIND (=discovery); “after storm” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | TORTILLA | Men avoiding pain and disease with a Mexican snack
TOR<men>T (=pain; “men avoiding” means letters “men” are dropped) + ILL (=disease) + A |
| 20 | VILLAIN | Scoundrel not at home where 6 lived?
VILLA<in> (=scoundrel); “not at home (=IN)” means letters “in” are dropped; as an Italian, Verdi (entry at 6) could well have lived in a villa |
| 22 | AID | One of 6’s curtailed help
AID<a> (=one of 6’s, i.e. an opera by Verdi); “curtailed” means last letter dropped |
| 23 | CONSECRATES | Makes hallowed studies backing church standards
CONS (=studies) + EC (CE=church; “backing” indicates reversal) + RATES (=standards) |
| 26 | OTHELLO | Back to greeting product of 12, inspiring 6
OT (TO; “back” indicates reversal) + HELLO; Othello is a play by Shakespeare (=entry at 12) that inspired the opera Otello by Verdi (=entry at 6) |
| 27 | ARIETTA | Item by 6 that is enveloped by skill getting cheers
[I.E. (=that is) in ART (=skill)] + TA (=cheers, i.e. thank you); as a writer of opera, Verdi (=entry at 6) produced many ariettas |
| 28 | ENTRY-LEVEL | In basic terms, aristocracy ignoring government almost continually held by liberals
<g>ENTRY (=aristocracy; “ignoring government (=G)” means letter “g” is dropped) + [EVE<r> (=continually; “almost” means last letter dropped) in L L (=liberals, i.e. 2 x L) |
| 29 | CLEF | Opening trimmed symbol used by 6
CLEF<t> (=opening); “trimmed” means last letter dropped; as a composer, Verdi (=entry at 6) used clefs in notation |
| Down | ||
| 01 | HOMESPUN | 12’s mechanical joke following Frenchmen losing one million
HOM<m>MES (=Frenchmen, i.e. the French for men; “losing one million (=M)” means one letter “m” is dropped) + PUN (=joke); mechanicals and homespuns are unpolished people, manual workers in Shakespeare (=entry at 12) |
| 02 | LUCIA | Not one of 6’s heroines’ fortune reduced by 25%, I accepted
LUC<k> (=fortune; “reduced by 25%” means 1 of 4 letters is dropped) + I + A (=accepted); Lucia di Lammermoor is an opera by Gaetano Donizetti, hence not one of Verdi (=entry at 6)’s heroines |
| 04 | UNHOPEFUL | A French flight, with fuel failing? Not encouraging
UN (=a French, i.e. the French for a) + HOP (=flight, i.e. by plane) + *(FUEL); “failing” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | DRAMA | Drink, a shared interest of 6 & 12
DRAM (=drink) + A; Verdi (=entry at 6) and Shakespeare (=entry at 12) were both interested in drama |
| 06 | GIUSEPPE VERDI | Composer is peeved with group sacrificing nothing for one after reorganisation
*(IS PEEVED + GR<I for O>UP); “sacrifing nothing (=O) for one (=I)” means a letter “o” is dropped from anagram – indicated by “after reorganisation – and replaced by a letter “i” |
| 07 | ROOT CANAL | Operation taken up involving no oral reshaping? Just the reverse here!
TCA (ACT=operation); “taken up” indicates vertical reversal) in *(NO ORAL); “reshaping” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 08 | YES MAN | Unknown with rising reputation accepting second uncritical supporter
Y (=unknown, i.e. in algebra) + [S (=second) in EMAN (NAME=reputation; “rising” indicates vertical reversal)] |
| 10 | ENERGETICALLY | Clarinet elegy misrepresented as vivo
*(CLARINET ELEGY); “misrepresented” is anagram indicator; vivo is an instruction in music meaning lively, energetic |
| 15 | BLOODSHOT | Men about town, attractive, showing effects of booze?
BLOODS (=men about town, i.e. dandies) + HOT (=attractive) |
| 17 | STALEMATE | Impasse: country’s holding Hindu festival up
ALEM (MELA=Hindu festival; “up” indicates vertical reversal) in STATE (=country) |
| 18 | FALSTAFF | Neglect, losing current employees – from 6 & 12?
FA<i>L (=neglect; “losing current (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped) + STAFF (=employees); Shakespeare (=entry at 12) created a character called Falstaff that inspired Verdi (=entry at 6)’s opera of the same name |
| 21 | SALOME | Not one of 6’s heroines – so male after transformation
*(SO MALE); “after transformation” is anagram indicator”; Salome is an opera by Richard Strauss, hence not one of Verdi (=entry at 6)’s heroines |
| 24 | NOOSE | Method of execution? Number fail to be beheaded
NO (=number) + <l>OSE (=fail; “to be beheaded” means first letter is dropped) |
| 25 | TOTAL | Whiskey and beer not quite everything
TOT (=whiskey) + AL<e> (=beer; “not quite” means last letter is dropped) |
Will be interesting to see what those ‘fed up with the bicentenary’ commenters have to say about this one. I am not one of them so I quite enjoying working out the wordplay and the links between 6d and 12a.
Thanks to Posa and RR too.
ROOT CANAL is not &lit., and would lead to ROOA CTNAL anyway in its logic.
Posa is a character in one of Verdi’s operas so the pseudonym may have been chosen for the day that’s in it – V born 10 10 1813.
Hmmm the Marquis of POSA appears in works by 6 and 12 and sounds suspiciously like Poser in the way that TEES is tease.
Not overly impressed by defining something as not being by Verdi, it doesn’t really narrow it down a great deal even if the wordplay was fairly trivial.
Snap, RR, I misspelt 6dn, too. Gui-, not Giu-.
Knowing it was Verdi’s birthday today, I got 6dn as almost the first clue, and I looked around to see if any famous playwright had a birthday today for 12ac, and I found it’s Harold Pinter’s birthday. For a while, I toyed with PINTERESQUE for 12ac, until I realised there are not many words D—Q for 5dn. 🙂 It was only getting 26ac that I realised 12ac was obvious.
Thanks, RR.
I got VERDI and SHAKESPEARE fairly quickly, so then it was a case of trying to sort out the themed clues. Agree with flashling that ‘not Verdi’s heroine’ is not a really clear indication of where we should be going. Got it all without e-help, which considering I know a bit about Shakespeare but much less about Verdi, I was quite chuffed with.
If it is a new setter, welcome; but if it’s somebody in disguise, why do this? Not that it’s a big deal: a crossword is a crossword no matter whose name is at the top.
Well, that was an acceptable celebration of today’s bicentenary in that it didn’t involve listening to interminable tracks of “can belto” (as Spooner might say) renderings of 6dn’s work. Sorry, crypticsue et al, but 6dn leaves me cold so I’ve been reaching for the off switch a lot this week. But each to his/her own taste so I don’t begrudge others their enjoyment.
Anyway, an interesting puzzle that didn’t take too long to solve, though I share flashling’s reservation about 2dn and 21dn. CoD was 12ac.
Thanks, Posa and RR
An interesting puzzle with some convoluted wordplay.
At 6dn I also had “Gui-” rather than “Giu-” until I saw that 11ac had to be AQUEOUS. I got through almost all of this reasonably quickly until I was left with 1ac and 1dn. I didn’t know the Shakespearean mechanical/homespun connection and needed aids to get it because I couldn’t parse the clue, although in retrospect it is clear enough once you know which element of the clue is the definition. Once I got that I finally saw HALF.
If Wagner can have Klingsor, then Verdi should not be denied a similarly cryptic reference. A blog on the puzzle will be up in around 12-13 hours, when I get back (earlier if it really pours down at lunchtime, as forecast). Blog accessible via clicking name above.
Unlucky there, Flash.
Fair enough paul but my guess seemed pretty sound 🙂 Nice stuff poser!
There’s no Phi tomorrow (and you knew, Paul! :)) so there you are. As he is also setting puzzles for the BBC Music Magazine, I was fairly sure that that was it.
And the crossword?
It was clear to me that Posa put a lot of thought into his brainchild, something that I appreciate very much.
Unfortunately for Posa, 6d was my first one in soon followed by 12ac. It made me look for the Ot(h)ellos, Fallstaffs and Macbeths of the world. And I found them!
Yet, this puzzle wasn’t a write-in – still enough to uncover.
However, there was something in the style of today’s clueing that didn’t appeal very much to me.
An overdose of very familiar (read: standard) indicators like rejected (twice), accepting, curtailed, accepted, enveloped, trimmed, losing, etc.
I know, I am a Grumpy Old Man …. – sorry.
However, overall very enjoyable.
Many thanks to Phi.
And of course to the Rolls Royce amongst the bloggers :).
As usual we started this late so there’s not much to add to what has already been said! We certainly hadn’t guessed it was Phi in disguise. We’d not heard or read anything about the significance of the date today so the puzle was solved blind, so to speak.
We’re pleased that we weren’t the only ones who couldn’t spell 6d!
We managed to solve this without electronic help which we felt was pretty good considering our lack of knowledge of the composer. AIDA was the only work of his that we would recognise and that’s only because it features heavily in crosswords.
Thanks Phi and RR for the blog!
Allan_c@7 Spooner would (purportedly) have said “cel banto”. Long puzzled by the regular misspelling of Giuseppe as Guiseppe. The “i” is there to soften the “g” as is always the case in Italian. If it started “Gu” the “g” would be hard.
Hi gwep @14
Spooner might have said either “cel banto” or “can belto”. A spoonerism can involve transposing syllables as well as letters, and one of the few spoonerisms reliably attributed to Spooner is “Kinquering Congs their titles take”. According to Time magazine, cited on Wikipedia, this was the only one Spooner himself admitted to.
Good point about misspelling “Giuseppe”. I think it arises because there are no common words in English that begin “giu…”. Incidentally it also gets misspelt with a final ‘i’.
allan_c@15 – acknowledge your point, though to the ear “cel banto” is surely more likely. “Kinquering Congs” Spoonerism made more likely by the assonance/alliteration of the expression, not present in “can belto”.
Just to confirm that there’s a blog up now.