美国国家公共电台 NPR Poetry Of Failure Comes To Life At Chicago's 'Baudelaire In A Box'

 

STACEY VANEK SMITH, HOST:

This weekend, the Lollapalooza music festival is taking over downtown Chicago. Hometown hero Chance the Rapper is the headliner tonight. He will be grabbing the spotlight¹. But on the city's North Side, a theater is hosting a very different kind of music marathon. It features original musical adaptations of every poem from 19th century French writer Charles Baudelaire's book, "Les Fleurs du Mal." You could call it Malapalooza (ph). Dan Weismann has the story.

DAN WEISSMAN, BYLINE²: Charles Baudelaire, who died 150 years ago this month, is the original poet of extreme disappointment, what Baudelaire called spleen - all the awful feelings we usually keep to ourselves. Not necessarily the kind of guy you'd want to spend a whole weekend with. In the case of visual artist Dave Buchen, it's been more like eight years. His paintings accompany every one of the Baudelaire poems being performed in this festival. When the project started, he was a new father, desperate for something kid unfriendly.

DAVE BUCHEN: I was reading to my children every night "The Little Red Train." I read that about probably a thousand times. And so Baudelaire is, you know, bad sex, bad drugs, death - all of the things that I'm not going to talk about...

CHRIS SCHOEN: Failure, remorse³, ruining your life.

BUCHEN: Yeah.

WEISSMAN: That other voice is songwriter Chris Schoen, Buchen's main collaborator⁴. The project started small. Buchen illustrated⁵ 5 Baudelaire poems about wine and scrolled⁷ his images across the front of a wooden wine box with a handheld crank while Schoen sang and played. Kind of a miniature 19th century music video.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

SCHOEN: (Singing) One night, the soul of wine sang in the bottles to you, oh, my worthy⁸ guttersnipes.

WEISSMAN: Here's how Buchen says things got more ambitious.

BUCHEN: Some guy came up to us and he said, so are you going to do one for every poem? And we laughed at him, said, that's an insane idea.

WEISSMAN: But it became a series of shows called Baudelaire In A Box. Once a year or so, Buchen would produce a scroll⁶ illustrating⁹ another dozen or so poems. And Schoen would recruit songwriters, musicians and singers to collaborate¹⁰ on the music.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) If your heart is not a total fake, inside it sits a yellow snake saying, all you do is a mistake.

WEISSMAN: The songs all favored acoustic¹¹ treatments until Schoen recruited veteran Chicago indie rocker Bobby Conn for a 2015 show.

BOBBY CONN: When I just started reading those Baudelaire lyrics¹², I was like, this is so Goth and so metal and not - it's just not folk music at all.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

CONN: (Singing) This irrespecter wears no clothes at all, a dreadful crown reeking¹³ of carnival¹⁴.

WEISSMAN: After producing more than a hundred songs, Buchen and Schoen decided¹⁵ to wrap up with the grand what-the-heck gesture of this weekend's festival - bringing together more than 50 artists, some of them flying in from places like Puerto Rico and Argentina. It's a big stretch for Theater Oobleck, the tiny company to which Buchen and Schoen belong. It's been presenting brainy, deeply eccentric original works for almost 30 years with a minimal¹⁶ budget. And as festival producer and Oobleck ensemble¹⁷ member Diana Slickman explains...

DIANA SLICKMAN: We work without a director, which makes a lot of people cock their head and look at you like puppies, like, what? How do you do that?

WEISSMAN: They also work without any full-time¹⁸ staff, a permanent location or a regular season. In addition to writing and performing, ensemble members do all the grunt¹⁹ work - costumes, lights, marketing²⁰. And decisions get made by consensus²¹ or on the fly, which is how Slickman ended up agreeing to produce the festival.

SLICKMAN: I'll tell you what, I don't think I did agree to it (laughter). I remember having a conversation with somebody saying, well, who's going to produce this thing? I said, well, I might be interested in that.

WEISSMAN: Oobleck's unusual approach has won the company fans in high and low places. Half of the festival's $30,000 budget came from the National Endowment for the Arts. The other half was raised on Kickstarter. There is a 12-hour marathon going on today of everything that's been performed to date. Tomorrow, every poem that Oobleck hasn't adapted before - about 30 - will get a one-time only airing with all new music and then it's done. Everyone goes home. Buchen says he doesn't know what his next project will be, but this one has lasted long enough that Baudelaire is no longer a haven²² from his kids.

BUCHEN: We were walking in the park one day. And my kids and I were playing dare. Like, dare you to climb that tree. And I said, dare you to jump up on top of that fountain and sing a song. And my daughter jumped up on that fountain in the middle of the park and she started singing, Satan have pity on my...

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) Satan have pity on my long misery²³.

WEISSMAN: Buchen's own favorite Baudelaire tune²⁴. For NPR News, I'm Dan Weissman in Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) The all-knowing lord of subterranean²⁵ things, who will remedy all human sufferings. Oh, Satan, have pity on my long misery.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 remorse   

n.痛恨，悔恨，自责

参考例句：

• She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔。
• He has shown no remorse for his actions.他对自己的行为没有任何悔恨之意。

4 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

5 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

6 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

7 scrolled   

adj.具有涡卷装饰的v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的过去式和过去分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Wherever the drop target can possibly be scrolled offscreen, the program needs to auto-scroll. 无论拖放的目标对象是否在屏幕之外，程序都需要自动滚动。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• If It'still is then you've not scrolled up enough lines. 如果还在说明你向上滚动的行数不够。 来自互联网

8 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

9 illustrating   

给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• He upstaged the other speakers by illustrating his talk with slides. 他演讲中配上幻灯片，比其他演讲人更吸引听众。
• Material illustrating detailed structure of graptolites has been etched from limestone by means of hydrofluoric acid. 表明笔石详细构造的物质是利用氢氟酸从石灰岩中侵蚀出来。

10 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

11 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

12 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

13 reeking   

v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象）

参考例句：

• I won't have you reeking with sweat in my bed! 我就不许你混身臭汗，臭烘烘的上我的炕！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• This is a novel reeking with sentimentalism. 这是一本充满着感伤主义的小说。 来自辞典例句

14 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

17 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

18 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

19 grunt   

v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝

参考例句：

• He lifted the heavy suitcase with a grunt.他咕噜着把沉重的提箱拎了起来。
• I ask him what he think,but he just grunt.我问他在想什麽，他只哼了一声。

20 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

21 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

22 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

23 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

24 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

25 subterranean   

adj.地下的，地表下的

参考例句：

• London has 9 miles of such subterranean passages.伦敦像这样的地下通道有9英里长。
• We wandered through subterranean passages.我们漫游地下通道。