VOA慢速英语--纽约大都会歌剧院时隔18个月后重新开放

New York Met Opera Reopens after 18 Month-long COVID Closure

"We bend, we don't break. We sway!" the performers sing in the second act of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

That message of survival in dark times was well-received by the thousands watching the Metropolitan¹ Opera in New York City this week. Its theater went dark in March 2020 in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. It reopened Monday night at its Lincoln Center home.

The suspension had lasted 566 days. COVID may have bent² The Met, but the Met did not break.

The showing made Met Opera history: Blanchard became the first Black composer to have his work performed by the Met.

About 4,000 people attended the event. Many in the crowd wore costly³ clothes and shiny jewels. The fans met with each other warmly, seeming to share in the joy they felt to be back at Lincoln Center.

At the end of the opera, the crowd went wild --- applauding for more than eight minutes.

Kasi Lemmons wrote the words to Fire Shut Up in My Bones based on a story by Charles M. Blow, a New York Times opinion writer. Blow and Lemmons both received loud cheers when they appeared on stage with Blanchard.

The night was a great victory for the 59-year-old composer and trumpet⁴ player. Like Blow, Blanchard is from Louisiana.That southern state is where the story takes place. It explores child sex abuse in segregated⁵ northern Louisiana during the 1970s.

This was Blanchard's second opera after 2013′s Champion, based on the life of professional fighter Emile Griffith.

Blanchard and Lemmons shrink a largely descriptive book to some main events in Blow's telling of his life experience: his family life as the youngest of five children, the abuse by a relative, his religion, and his time in college. It also explores Blow's search for love, first with Evelyn and later Greta. The audience's biggest reaction was for the dancing college students, who stole the show.

Blanchard and Lemmons move the plot along by having the adult Charles, performed by Will Liverman, sing alongside the young Charles. Walter Russell III, a 13-year-old who plays the young Charles, got the biggest cheers individually for his moving performance.

Words in This Story

sway -v. to move slowly back and forth⁶

composer -n. a person who writes music

applaud -v. to strike the hands together over and over to show approval or praise

segregated -adj. restricted to members of one group or one race by a policy of segregation

stole the show -verb phrase to get more attention and praise than anyone or anything else, by doing something better than others do

1 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

2 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

5 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。