英语听力精选进阶版 8189

Madiba The African Opera will debut¹ at the State Theater in South Africa today. It's a dramatic musical retelling of the early life and times of Nelson Mandela. Little is known about his early childhood and the opera is going to focus on his later years. It's all been created by Mandela's great nephew.

It was just a matter of time. We've had Mandela on screen at the time of his death just five months ago. And now here, at the State Theater in Pretoria, final rehearsals² are taking place for Madiba The African Opera.

It was Nelson Mandela's great nephew who believed a story needed to be told about the great statesman. This has been done through a host of books, autobiographies³ and forms. But Madiba The African Opera presents the life of a man through song, orchestra, drums into the storytelling of how Mandela ran away to Johannesburg because of an arranged marriage, how he became a lawyer, his courtship with Winnie Mandela and his prison years.

I'm the conductor, and the musical director and also the orchestrator of the opera. It's really good for us to do it now, to also remind people cuz people soon forget. We've just had an election. So people forget. Just remind them of the nation builder this man was, that we have him and others of course, but he was really the protagonist⁴ and he is the one that the stroy can be told through and that's what the beauty of the opera is. It tells us the story of many South Africans through one man. So we feel that we've been blessed with this opportunity.

He's been described as the man of moral inspiration and respect.

Yeah, it's quite overwhelming to sing really highly emotional type of songs and you know the message that she always has to send through is always teary. It's always devastating⁵. And it's difficult to, you know, to execute this kind of a role because there is nothing that is documented.

If he was alive today and he was watching the opera, what do you think he would make of it?

I think he would be very teary. He was really a very soft person, you know. He really had a really soft side of him. 

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 autobiographies   

n.自传( autobiography的名词复数 )；自传文学

参考例句：

• The series was based on the autobiographies of the author. 这部连续剧是根据那位作家的自传拍摄的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are some songs and, recently, a few autobiographies about peasant experience. 有些歌曲描述了农民的经验，最近还出了几本自传。 来自互联网

4 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

5 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。