首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Anniversaries are the opium of museums, publishers, theaters and opera houses. Fixing their eyes on some round-number birth or d
Anniversaries are the opium of museums, publishers, theaters and opera houses. Fixing their eyes on some round-number birth or d
admin
2011-02-11
41
问题
Anniversaries are the opium of museums, publishers, theaters and opera houses. Fixing their eyes on some round-number birth or death date of a major creator, they start planning to cash in years before. For 2006, birthdays are the winning numbers: Rembrandt’s 400th; Mozart’s 250th; and the 100th for Samuel Beckett and Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Dutch have organized a score of Rembrandt shows, starting appropriately with an exhibition based around his mother in the town of his birth, Leiden. Mozart’s music will be heard more than usual in churches, concert hails and opera houses around the world, with his birthplace, Salzburg, once again trying to compensate for the indifference it showed him during his lifetime.
But do such anniversaries and accompanying celebrations serve much purpose? Are they just marketing devices to sell tickets to museums and performances? Or do they help draw the attention of younger generations to the giants of Western culture who at times seem crowded out by the pygmies of popular culture?
As it happens, the practice is not new. The birth of Bardolatry, or Shakespeare worship, is generally traced to the Shakespeare Jubilee, which was organized by the actor-manager David Garrick to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the playwright’s birth (the jubilee was actually held in 1769, five years after the anniversary, but presumably time was more flexible in those days).
Until then, perhaps surprisingly, Shakespeare was not doing too well. The popularity of many of his plays did not survive the l8-year-long closure of London’s theaters during the Civil War and Cromwell’s rule. Then, after theaters reopened in 1660 with the Restoration of the monarchy, several of his major works -- "Richard Ⅲ" and "King Lear" among them -- were drastically revised by other playwrights.
Today, Mozart, for one, is hardly in need of revival. No opera house plans a season these days without including at least one of his stage masterpieces: "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", "Cosi fan tutte" and "Die Zauberflote". His "Requiem", "Coronation Mass" and other sacred works are regularly performed. His instrumental works -- he wrote hundreds -- keep soloists and orchestras busy throughout the year.
A more interesting reflection for Jan. 27, the 250th anniversary of his birth, is: how would Western culture have fared without Mozart?
True, the same question might be asked of myriad great artists who have bequeathed beauty, emotion and understanding. Yet Mozart was unique, not only because he excelled in every kind of music (while, say, Verdi and Wagner were great composers only of opera), but also because, more even than Bach, he turned listening into a deeply personal experience.
There is that perennial: who killed Mozart? In Peter Schaffer’s 1979 play, "Amadeus", adapted as an Oscar-winning movie by Milos Forman in 1984, the finger of guilt was pointed at Mozart’s contemporary, Antonio Salieri. But even that charge was old hat: Pushkin first raised it in his 1830 play, "Mozart and Salieri", which Rimsky-Korsakov adapted as an opera in 1897. Still, the question is again being trotted out for the anniversary.
No such mystery surrounds Rembrandt’s life or death. But if his greatness was only fully recognized in the 19th century, he certainly is in need of no anniversary "special offers" to be admired today. His more than 600 oils are in collections around the world and, whenever selected for exhibitions, they draw huge crowds.
The organizers of Rembrandt 400, as the anniversary has been tagged, evidently again have crowds in mind, hoping that some 250,000 people will travel to the Netherlands for the occasion.
Will Rembrandt’s fans cross paths with those of Mozart?
If they did, they might find that their idols have something in common. In his 75 or so self portraits, recording his passage from youth to old age, Rembrandt seems to offer a window into his soul. Cannot Mozart’s compositions also be considered as self-portraits? Certainly, it is by displaying their intimacy that they share their genius with us.
But of course only time will define their place in the pantheon. As happened to Rembrandt and many others, great artists are often forgotten before they are enshrined by posterity. After that, thankfully, anniversaries make little difference.
It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
选项
A、Mozart’s music used to be only played in church
B、Mozart’s music has always been welcomed by people
C、Rembrandt once painted a lot about his mother
D、Rembrandt was brought up by his mother only
答案
C
解析
推断题。第二段说荷兰人已组织了20场伦勃朗画展,第一场画展是在他出生的城市莱顿举办的,主题是关于他的母亲。在世界各地的教堂、音乐厅和歌剧院,人们会比以往更频繁地听到莫扎特的音乐,莫扎特的故乡萨尔茨堡则再次试图为在他活着时对他表现出的冷漠做出补偿。可见,伦勃朗创作了很多关于他母亲的画像,故C正确。但至于他是否由母亲独自养大(D),奠扎特的作品过去是否只在教堂演奏(A),文章都没有提及;但是由莫扎特活着时故乡对他的作品反应冷漠可以知道,他的作品并非一直像今天这样受到推崇,排除B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/YouYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Humanmigration:thetermisvague.Whatpeopleusuallythinkofisthepermanentmovementofpeoplefromonehometoanother.M
TheValueofAnimalResearchToparaphrase18th-centurystatesmanEdmundBurke,"allthatisneededforthetriumphofamis
IwasjustaboywhenmyfatherbroughtmetoHarlemforthefirsttime,almost50yearsago.WestayedattheHotelTheresa,a
秦淮河的水是碧阴阴的;看起来厚而不腻,或者是六朝金粉所凝么?我们初上船的时候,天色还未断黑,那漾漾的柔波是这样的恬静,委婉,使我们一面有水阔天空之想,一面又憧憬着纸醉金迷之境了。等到灯火明时,阴阴的变为沉沉了:黯淡的水光,像梦一般;那偶然闪烁着的光芒,就是
_____istheleadinggeneraloftheSouthintheAmericanCivilWar.
ThestylethatUrreahasadoptedtotellTeresita’s—andMexico’s—storyinhisbook"TheHummingbird’sDaughter"partakesoft
IntheUS,pollafterpollhasshownamajorityinfavourofanimalexperimentation,evenwithoutstatementsaboutitsvalue.Wh
______isgenerallyregardedasJohnSteinbeck’smasterpiece.
Ofallthecomponentsofagoodnight’ssleep,dreamsseemtobeleastwithinourcontrol.Indreams,awindowopensintoaworl
Asweknow,therearetwokindsofelephants:theAfricanandtheAsianelephants,whicharethelargest【1】______animalsinthe
随机试题
根据《社会团体登记管理条例》,下列机构不得作为单位会员加入社会团体的是()。
对于顾客,在打招呼之后我们需要初步询问其意图,或进行寒暄。以下不适合的用语是
具有转运内源性甘油三酯功能的脂蛋白是
早产新生儿肌注维生素K是为了预防
男性,65岁,2周来不明原因发热,乏力,多轩,食欲不振。检查:心界不大,胸骨左缘第三肋间可闻舒张期叹气样杂音,心率100次/分,律整,肺清,肝未及,脾侧位触及,血压20.8/19.1kPa(146/70mmHg)。血培养结果是肠球菌,合理治疗是
接受要约的承诺人要使发出的承诺不产生法律效力,则撤回承诺的通知应当在( )到达要约人。
被誉为“中国17世纪的工艺百科全书”,并系统科学地总结了16世纪末到17世纪中叶的农业和手工业生产技术的著作是()。
作为一种新型的精神文明,社会主义精神文明的特点有()。
豆腐渣工程
Theunauthorized(未经授权的)copyingofcomputerprogramsbyAmericanbusinessesalonedeprivedsoftwarepublishersof$1.6billion
最新回复
(
0
)