VOA标准英语2012--'The Bricklayer' Details Iranian Exile Experience on Stage
时间:2012-03-16 08:23:16
搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。
(单词翻译)
'The Bricklayer' Details Iranian Exile Experience on Stage
Even in last-minute rehearsals1 on a bare stage, the power of The Bricklayer's story comes through, as well as the sadness at its core.
This opera tells of one family's suffering, the son executed in Iran, the father tortured so badly he is left mentally disabled. His part is sung by Houston Opera veteran John Colbet.
Author Farnoosh Moshiri, who left Iran in 1983 and makes Houston her home says the story will be familiar to many Iranians who escaped
repression2 and had to start a new life in a foreign country.
"Just resilience and hope can take people through hardships and the
solidarity3 of the family members with each other," said Moshiri. "Many families had such traumatic experience."
But she says exiles from other countries will also identify with the story of this family.
"Not only exiles from Iran, but exiles from any other
dictatorial4 regime that they leave their country for good, it is a universal story," Moshiri added.
Composer Gregory Spears worked with Moshiri to put The Bricklayer to music.
"I think Greg has done a
fabulous5 job of using my words, using my language for the purpose of the opera," Moshiri
noted6.
Spears says his partner's writing skills produced compelling
lyrics7.
"Farnoosh has very powerful stories, but she also has a very clear,
straightforward8, but also
poetic9 style of writing," Spears explained.
Houston Grand Opera's
Artistic10 and Music Director Patrick Summers says this work reflects the city's diverse
ethnic11 and cultural communities, using music as the common language.
"We very much want, as a leading American arts company, to be a company that tells the story of our own city," said Summers. "In opera, music leads the dramatic pulse, and The Bricklayer is very successful at that."
This is one of several new works being developed by Houston Grand Opera as part of its "Song of Houston, East plus West" program, which celebrates the city as a meeting place for people from Eastern and Western cultures.
分享到: