百声颂自然

主持：Joanna C. Lee 编译：辛时雨

从门外汉到歌剧通

How to become an opera expert

小琼：

这个月，送上来自纽约的问候。我在这里观看了一场出色的世界首演，共600位歌唱家和14位指挥家参与其中。该演出于8月11日在纽约圣约翰大教堂举行，但我想说说更多背后的故事。

小薇：

之前你跟我说过，会到纽约去参加莫扎特音乐节。这该不会是莫扎特作品的世界首演吧？

小琼：

近年来，莫扎特音乐节主办方开始策划更多元的表演项目。曾获普利策大奖的作曲家约翰·路德·亚当斯（John Luther Adams，注意：他的名字与写《尼克松在中国》的约翰·亚当斯很像，但他们是完全不同的两个人！），写了这部大规模的合唱作品——《以地球之名》（In the Name of the Earth）。

小薇：

我在网上查了一下，发现这是一个免费向公众开放的活动。

小琼：

基本上，亚当斯为四个大型合唱团（分别代表北方、南方、东方、西方）谱写了这首作品，但他特意让歌唱部分易于掌握。几个月前，莫扎特音乐节发布了一份公开邀请函：想参加此次演出的人士只需在网上报名并出席几次排练即可。这部作品几乎没有伴奏，除了演唱者手持的小响铃之类的无音高打击乐器。

在纽约圣约翰大教堂举行的大规模合唱《以地球之名》现场

小薇：“

以地球之名”，这是个非常吸引人的标题。这部作品的歌词写了些什么呢？

小琼：

亚当斯对这部作品的灵感来源给出了一些富有洞察力的见解。对他来说，《以地球之名》是一张描述北美洲的“音乐地图”。他曾经居住在阿拉斯加，所以特别关注环保问题。

小薇：

因此所有的歌词都是地名？

小琼：

山峰和山脉；江河和冰川；森林、平原和沙漠——它们的名字都包括在歌词里。歌词选用的语言，都是居住在这片土地上的人们所使用的——英语、西班牙语，还有北美土著居民使用的印第安语。

小薇：

我在此次作品世界首演的照片中看到，合唱演员们在演出时会在台上来回走动。

小琼：

不仅是歌手们按照具体的编排设计走动（我觉得其中一个段落，他们的演出简直制造出了声浪！），制作方也鼓励观众们在演出期间走到不同地点去聆听。我很期待在露天聆听这部作品——在户外，观众可以更自由地走动，因为最初的计划是在室外的中央公园举行世界首演。8月11日当天，雷电和倾盆大雨迫使演出移师室内。我相信，在户外的聆听体验会完全不一样。

Joan:

Greetings from New York, where I attended a beautiful world premiere involving 600 singers and 14 conductors. The event took place on August 11 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, but there’s a bigger story behind it.

Valery:

You told me earlier you were in New York to attend the Mostly Mozart Festival. This couldn’t possibly be a Mozart world premiere, could it?

Joan:

In recent years, Mostly Mozart began to embrace more diverse presentations. This massive choral work, In the Name of the Earth, was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams(important: despite their similar names, he is different from John Adams who wrote Nixon in China!).

Valery:

I went online and realized this was a free event open to the public.

Joan:

Basically, Adams scored it for four large choirs(representing North, South, East, West) but he deliberately made the singing parts easy to master.Months before, the Mostly Mozart Festival sent out an open invitation to anyone in the community who wanted to participate and the only thing they had to do was sign up, and then attend a few rehearsals. The composition was largely unaccompanied, except for unpitched hand-held percussion instruments played by the choristers, such as small bells.

Valery:

In the Name of the Earth is such an evocative title. What text is used?

Joan:

Adams gave some truly insightful comments on his inspirations. To him, In the Name of the Earth is a “musical map” of North America. He used to live in Alaska, which made him very environmentally conscious.

Valery:

So all of the texts are names?

Joan:

Mountain peaks and ranges, rivers and glaciers,forests and plains and deserts in multiple languages used by people who’ve inhabited this land—English,Spanish and Native American.

Valery:

I see from the photos of the world premiere that choral singers also moved around.

Joan:

Not only did the singers walk according to specific choreography (at one point, I felt they formed a sonic tidal wave!), but the audience was encouraged to explore the work from all different angles. I’m looking forward to a second hearing—out in the open air where the audience can move even more freely, which was the original intention of putting this in Central Park. On August 11, thunderstorms and rains forced us to move indoors. The outdoor experience will be completely different.