首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, in St. Petersburg in 1892, was a flop. Wrote one critic the next day: "Fo
The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, in St. Petersburg in 1892, was a flop. Wrote one critic the next day: "Fo
admin
2011-01-02
42
问题
The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, in St. Petersburg in 1892, was a flop. Wrote one critic the next day: "For dancers there is rather little in it; for art absolutely nothing, and for the artistic fate of our ballet, one more step downward." Two decades passed before another production was attempted.
A century later, the ballet constitutes the single biggest fine-ms moneymaker in the United States, which has claimed the ballet as its own. In 1996, box-office receipts for some 2,400 American performances of the work by more than 20,000 dancers totaled nearly U. S, $ 50 million. Despite the ballet’s popularity, however, few Americans are aware of its history — or of some of the twists and turns of fete that have changed it from its original form.
Choreographer Maurice Petipa (known as the "father of classical ballet") prepared the first production for Tchaikovsky in 1892. He based his scenario not on the macabre 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Fang of the Mice by E. T. A. Hoffmann, which the composer had thought to use for his inspiration, but on Alexander Dumas’s more benign 1845 French adaptation. Petipa did use the Hoffmann version to name his characters, but mixed up some names because he could not read German. (The heroine of the piece, Clara, should be named Marie according to the story. Clara is in fact the name of one of her dolls.)
In the original story the Mouse King had seven heads and terrified the seven-year-old Marie by foaming blood from all seven mouths and grinding and chattering all seven sets of teeth. These memorable characteristics, along with other sinister qualifies in Hoffmann’s story, are among those aspects of the original that have been removed in most modem adaptations.
Removed from the ballet altogether by Petipa is a vital plot-within-a-plot in the Hoffmann story. This is the fairytale related to Marie while she recovers from injuries sustained in the battle between the forces of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. As a result, the storyline in the ballet does not really make sense.
In the fairytale, we learn that the Mouse King’s desire for vengeance has its origins in his evil mother, the wily Madam Mouserinks, whose first seven sons have been executed by the royal court for eating all the fat from the royal family’s sausages. In retribution, Madam Mouserinks has attacked the little Princess Pirlipat in her cradle, turning her into a misshapen creature whose beauty can be restored only if she eats a certain rare, difficult-to-crack nut called Krakatuk.
After many years the nut is finally located in Asia by the court clockmaker and wizard, Drosselmeyer, whose young nephew is identified as a prime candidate to crack it. The young man is already known as "the Nutcracker" for the gallantry he shows in cracking nuts for young ladies in his father’s shop. As predicted, he alone is able to crack the hard nut. He offers it to the princess to eat, and her beauty is restored. At that moment, however, the Nutcracker chances to step backwards, trampling on none other than Madam Mouserinks. She is fatally injured, but manages to place a curse on the young man before she dies. He is transformed into a grotesque parody of his former self, with a monstrous head, a yawning mouth and a lever in the back by which his jaw may be moved up and down. Madam Mouserinks sentences him to battle her son, the Mouse King, whom she bore after the death of her seven previous sons, and who has their seven heads. The curse may be removed only when the Nutcracker is able to win the love of a young lady in spite of his ugliness ....
Hoffmann, the author of the original Nutcracker story, was as peculiar as many of his characters. Small and wiry, with sunken eyes and dark bushy hair, he had nervous tics that caused his hands, feet and face to twitch constantly. He adored the music of Mozart (and changed one of his middle names from Wilhelm to Amadeus, to honor the great composer), was subject to bouts of deep melancholy and was an alcoholic who sold the rights to his first book for a cellar of wine. He eventually died of a combination of liver disease and a neural illness that gradually paralyzed his body, starting with his feet.
Several of Hoffmann’s stories provided the basis for operas and ballets. The French composer Jacques Offenbach, for example, used three of his short stories as the basis for The Tales of Hoffmann — a quite serious piece, breaking with Offenbach’s earlier light-hearted style.
Tchaikovsky, composer of The Nutcracker, was invited to conduct his work but refused. He was terrified that if he were to mount the podium and try to conduct an orchestra his head might fall off. He died shortly after the first performance of The Nutcracker, during a cholera epidemic — it was supposed he had been drinking impure water, but a more recent theory suggests that he killed himself out of fear of exposure for a sexual scandal involving the Russian royal family.
The author and the composer may have had unusual characteristics, and the story of the Nutcracker itself may be bizarre, but its popularity endures. In recent years American choreographers have played with the formula to bring it up to date. Kirk Peterson’s The American Nutcracker is set in the redwood forests of Northern California and replaces some Of the characters with legendary or famous American names — notably 19th-eeutury writer Mark Twain as a party guest.
The Pacific Northwest Ballet’s popular Nutcracker production uses sets by avant-garde designer Maurice Sendak and plumbs the tale’s dark psychological aspects far deeper than most. Production company Ballethnic in Atlanta, Georgia, has an Urban Nutcracker set in Atlanta in the 1940s; costumes in earth, amber and chocolate tones represent the different skin colors of the ethnic mix.
In Baton Rouge, Louisianna, the Regional Ballet has in its repertory a Bayou Nutcracker in which Clara falls asleep in a bayou, dreams of a lavish plantation party and travels to the land of sweets in a hot- air balloon.
Americans wanting to reclaim some of the psychology of the Hoffmann short story have been investigating choreographer Mark Morris’s dark 1991 update since it became available on video. Set in the 1960s, Morris’s visionary The Hard Nut probes many of the same moral issues as the Hoffmann original, most of which are lost in today’s conventional versions.
选项
答案
D
解析
细节题。本题可采用排除法。第八段第一句提到,霍夫曼和他塑造的很多角色一样奇特,故排除A;第九段第一句提到,霍夫曼的几部短篇小说给歌剧和芭蕾舞剧提供了素材,故排除B、c;第四段提到,鼠王让人难忘的特征以及霍夫曼小说中其他险恶的因素在大多数现代改编版本中被删除了,但原文并未提到霍夫曼的大部分短篇小说实际上都很险恶,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/gIeO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
我发现自己发话太突然了,也说得太多了,一时间感到左右为难。我要求她让我想一分钟,她便坐在那里,很不耐烦,又很激动,神情有点儿快乐而舒坦,仿佛一个人刚把病牙拔掉。我于是又思索了起来。我跟我自己说,当一个人处境艰难的时候,站立起来把真相给说出来,那是要冒风
A、Therewere13.000peopleneededtobemovedB、Thehurricanecamein1988killed300peopleC、Itisthelargestresortinthew
Beforeconsideringthisquestionitisinterestingtoreviewbrieflytheevolutionofthemindas【M
幸福可以被描绘成一种积极的情绪和一种愉快的心境。根据最近的民意测验,百分之六十到七十的美国人认为他们自己基本上是幸福的;而每二十个人中有一个人认为自己非常不幸福。心理学家们一直在研究构成幸福的因素。幸福是不可预卜的,而一个处于表面上最理想的环境中的
A、thedemandistoolowB、thesupplyistoolargeC、thecostistoohighD、thepriceischangeableD
TheAmericanTaxSystemGovernmentsraiserevenuesthroughtaxation.Ataxisa【1】_______paymenttogovernment.I
ThatLouisNevelsonisbelievedbymanycriticstobethegreatesttwentieth-centurysculptorisallthemoreremarkablebecause
Ofallthesymbols,______,whichareconsideredtorepresentfertilityandnewlife,arethosemostfrequentlyassociatedwith
D英国历史。题目询问是谁建立的诺曼王朝,答案是被称为征服者威廉的诺曼底公爵威廉(DukeWilliamofNormandy)。JuliusCaesar率领罗马人侵略英格兰;HenryⅧ的功绩是进行了英国宗教改革;OliverCromwell则
A、Bothwerewearingdarksweaters.B、Neitherwaswearingglasses.C、Bothwereaboutthesameage.D、Oneofthemwasmarkedbya
随机试题
通常情况下,造价不高且适宜在低路堤上使用的涵洞形式有()。[2011年真题]
A.配伍禁忌B.协同作用C.相加作用D.颉颃作用E.无关作用8月龄。患大肠杆菌病,兽医采用肌内注射复方磺胺嘧啶钠注射液。剂量为每千克体重20mg,磺胺嘧啶钠和4mg甲氧苄啶的用药方案,该联合用药最有可能发生的相互作用是
某类型试剂是在同一比色杯中,先后加入两种试剂与检品中的两种被检物发生反应,在各反应达到平衡期时分别测定,整个测定过程进行三次比色,得到两个测定项目的结果,该类型试剂盒为
A.脾气虚证B.脾阳虚证C.脾不统血证D.脾气下陷证E.寒湿困脾证
舌损伤时缝合要求不正确的是( )
妊娠合并心脏病对胎儿的影响是
(2007年)物块A重W=10N,被用水平力Fp=50N挤压在粗糙的铅垂墙面B上,且处于平衡(见图4-29)。块与墙间的摩擦系数f=0.3。A与B间的摩擦力大小为()。
某项目现金流量表(单位:万元)如下:则该项目的净现值和动态投资回收期分别为()。
在SWOT分析图中,位于第Ⅱ象限的企业应采取()战略。
从甲骨文到草书、行书的各种书法艺术,间接地反映了现实某些方面的属性,将具体的形式集中概括为抽象的意象,通过视觉来启发人们的想象力,调动人们的情感,使人们从意象中体味到其间所蕴含的美。这也就是一些讲书法的文章里常说的“舍貌取神”——舍弃客观事物的具体现象特征
最新回复
(
0
)