VOA常速英语2014--Broadway Celebrates Legendary Cotton Club 百老汇庆祝传奇的棉花俱乐部

 

Broadway Celebrates Legendary¹ Cotton Club 百老汇庆祝传奇的棉花俱乐部

NEW YORK — From the early 1920s to 1940, Harlem’s Cotton Club was the showplace for African-American performers in New York.

纽约—从20世纪20年代早期到20世纪40年代， 哈莱姆棉花俱乐部是美国黑人表演者在纽约表演的地方。

 

Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith and the Nicholas Brothers are just a few of the artists whose work is interpreted in a new revue on Broadway called After Midnight.

莲纳.荷恩，杜克.艾林顿，凯伯.凯洛威，贝西.史密斯和尼古拉斯兄弟等一批艺术家在解释百老汇讽刺时事的一种新滑稽剧被叫做”午夜之后”.

New York University History Professor David Levering Lewis, author of When Harlem Was In Vogue², thinks the show does a pretty good job of recreating the legendary nightclub.

纽约大学历史教授，大卫.利弗林.路易斯，一位是当时哈莱姆正在流行时的作者，认为“午夜之后”这种表演确实是这个传奇夜总会娱乐消遣的好方式。

"I thought it captured the flavor of what would have been one night - the best ever - at the Cotton Club," he said. 

“我认为它抓住了一个夜晚应该有的味道-永远之最-在棉花俱乐部”，他说，

After Midnight began as a collaboration³ between Wynton Marsalis, the artistic⁴ director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Jack⁵ Viertel, artistic director of Encores, an organization that puts on concert versions of old musicals. Viertel says they both feel close to the subject.

“午夜之后”作为一项在林肯中心的爵士总监温顿.马沙利斯和重唱艺术总监杰克.菲尔特，菲尔特他是把旧音乐融入音乐会的组织，菲尔特说他们都感觉贴近主题。

"I have a fixation with Harold Arlen, who started his career, or early in his career, wrote songs for the Cotton Club," Viertel said. "And Wynton has a lifelong obsession⁶ with Duke Ellington, and, while Arlen was writing songs for the Cotton Club, Duke Ellington was the house band of the Cotton Club."

“我和哈罗德.阿伦有了一个定位，哈罗德.阿伦在他早期的生涯是为棉花俱乐部写歌。“菲尔特说。温顿是杜克.艾林顿终身的粉丝，当阿伦正在为棉花俱乐部写歌的时候，杜克.艾林顿是棉花俱乐部的乐队。

Viertel and Marsalis drew on old photographs, YouTube videos and classic recordings⁷.

菲尔特和马沙利斯凭借的是旧照片，You Tube 录像和经典的录音。

The Cotton Club was owned by a Chicago gangster⁸ named Owney Madden as a way to sell liquor at inflated⁹ prices during Prohibition¹⁰, when the sale of alcohol was banned.

棉花俱乐部是由一位名叫欧尼.马登的芝加哥匪头掌管，欧尼.马登在酒被禁止销售时，在开夜总会以酒价浮动的形式来销售酒。

While it was located in the heart of the African-American neighborhood of Harlem and showcased black performers, it was open to whites only, says historian Levering Lewis.

“当棉花俱乐部位于哈莱姆美国黑人邻居的中心，舞台是由黑人表演时，它仅对白人开放。“历史学家利弗林.路易斯说。

"As everyone knows, it was infamously¹¹ racially-exclusive," Lewis said. "W.C. Handy wished to go one evening to The Cotton Club and he was turned away. And he could hear his music being performed." 

“正如每个人都知道，它臭名昭著于种族排外“，路易斯说。”W.C. 汉迪希望去棉花俱乐部一晚上，随后他就被解雇，而且他可以听见他的音乐正在被表演。

That gives actor Dulé Hill pause. 

这使演员杜尔.希尔踌躇不前。

"As much as we try, I don’t think we’ll really ever understand what that felt like; to come on the stage and to be so fabulous¹² and to be so amazing and to be so elegant and classy, but not be able to sit down," Hill said. 

“我们尽力去做，我认为我们重来没有真正明白那种感觉像什么；登上舞台，如此的难以置信，如此令人惊讶，如此高雅和上等，但是就是不能坐下。“希尔说。

Hill, who’s best known for his work in TV, serves as master of ceremonies, reciting poetry by Langston Hughes, as well as singing and dancing. 

希尔，在电视节目中显为人知，作为一个仪式的主持，背诵，唱着和表演真兰斯顿.休斯的诗。

The original Cotton Club revues featured some offensive racial stereotyping¹³, which Viertel says the show consciously avoids. 

原始的棉花俱乐部滑稽剧的特点是套用老套的攻击性的种族，菲特尔说这个节目在有意识的躲避。

"I think we decided¹⁴ that one of the services we could do for the artists who created the work originally was to give them an opportunity to be liberated¹⁵ from that circumstance," Viertel said. "We didn’t think it would serve them, or our current cast or musicians to try to, sort of, circumvent¹⁶ the joy of the art with the shame of the social reality, which continues in this country in various ways up to this very day."

“我认为我们决定我们能为艺术家做的是给他们一个逃离现状的机会。“菲特尔说”我们任务是它能服务他们，或者我们当时的投掷，或者音乐人去尝试几分每天以各种各样的方式持续存在社会现实羞耻的包围着艺术的高兴。“

After Midnight is not trying to whitewash¹⁷ history, says Hill.

“午夜之后不去掩饰历史“希尔说。

"It’s not that we’re brushing it underneath¹⁸ the rug and saying 'No, don’t pay any attention to that,'” he said. "No, that informs everything we’re doing. But we’re choosing to celebrate and life is all about choice. And so is art."

“它不是我们正在地毯下冲洗它，并且不关心它。“他说。”不，那是告知每一件我们正在做的事情。但是我们选择去庆祝，生活处处是选择。它就是艺术。

By choosing to celebrate the art of the entertainers who made the Cotton Club famous, After Midnight is giving a new generation a chance to discover the music, dance and magic of an earlier era.

选择去庆祝那些使棉花俱乐部闻名的表演者的艺术，午夜之后是给新生代一次去发现音乐、舞蹈和一个更早时代的魔法。

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

3 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

4 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

7 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

8 gangster   

n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒

参考例句：

• The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
• He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。

9 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。

11 infamously   

不名誉地

参考例句：

• They will not have much cause of triumph when they see how infamously I act. 当他们看到我演得那么糟糕时，他们就不会有多少理由感到胜利了。

12 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

13 stereotyping   

v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I realize that I'm stereotyping. 我认识到我搞的是老一套。 来自辞典例句
• There is none of the gender stereotyping usually evident in school uniforms. 有没有人的性别刻板印象通常是显而易见的。 来自互联网

14 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。

15 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

16 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

17 whitewash   

v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰

参考例句：

• They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
• What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。

18 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。