Slide

DR. DEE
歌劇《迪伊博士》

When the greed reaches a limit, even if it is the desire for knowledge, it may also bring about a disaster.

當貪婪到達極致時,即使是對於知識的渴求,帶來的可能也 是一場災難。

The Elizabethan England once again returns to public view. As a play participating in the 2012 British Olympic cultural activities, Dr. Dee can be regarded as a masterpiece in terms of its creativity, although there are considerable controversies over its music, almost every new play has faced such a situation. However, for English National Opera, as a benchmark, that ‘creates opera for the future’, creativity is always their pursuit, for this reason, ENO is full of vitality today. It is a challenge to the artists to present the story and characters of 500 years ago in a finite space within two hours. But the finite- ness of theatrical art is exactly where her charm lies; it is enough to test the creativity of the artists to show their infinite imagination in the finite space, besides, it also requires that such creativity is able to be conveyed to the audience in an effective and direct manner. Therefore, in addition to telling the story very well, the visual expression is particularly important. The whole play places the contemporary England and the England in the Renaissance in the same space, in which the ‘contemporary’ is the old-style cabin hanging over the center of the stage, where the ancient music players and the guitarist are in, and the ‘classical’ is the story of that era that is going on the stage. Such a visual structure is a very effective way to help the audience to understand Dr. Dee, that is to say, it will not make them feel like this: how could such a remote story have anything to do with our present life? Instead, it will make the audience think about the ‘past’ and the ‘present’ when watching it. Another means to express the ‘contemporary’ is the use of projected images. The imaging technology used in theatrical art is no longer a rare thing, as early as the mid-20th century Svoboda, Czech architect and master of stage design, has made a beginning and kept practicing his exploration constantly, and his design had important influence on the later theoretical art. The image part that is designed and produced by ‘59 Productions’ indeed improves upon this play, the fantastic images, like ‘stars’, ‘numbers’ and ‘alchemy’, sometimes overlap with each other and some- times separate from each other on the stage. This sense of visual illusion does make me feel as if I am travelling through the Renaissance era.

伊麗莎白一世的英格蘭再次回到了公眾的視線,作為2012英國文化奧林 匹克活動的參演劇目,歌劇《迪伊博士》從創造力上而言算是一部上乘作 品,儘管在音樂上頗受爭議,不過幾乎每一部新歌劇均面臨這種局面。 但對於“為未來而創作歌劇”作為標竿的英國國家歌劇院(English National Opera),創造力是他們一直的追求,也就有了現在ENO如此的活力。如 何在兩個小時內,一個有限的空間裡曾現500年前的故事和人物,這給了 藝術家們一個挑戰。劇場藝術的有限性也正是她的魅力所在,在有限裡展 現無限的想像力,足以考驗藝術家的創造力,而且這種創造力還要能直接 有效地傳遞給觀眾。因此除很好地講述 故事外,視覺上的表達尤為重要。整部 歌劇將當代與文藝復興時期的英格蘭並置在一個空間裡,“當代”就是在舞台中 央懸空的舊式船艙,古樂演奏者和吉他 歌手置身其中,“古典”便是舞台上發生 的那個時代的故事。這種視覺結構的方 式非常有效地幫助了觀眾理解《迪伊博士》, 既不覺得這麼遙遠的事情與我們
現在的生活有什麼關係? 也讓觀眾在觀 看的過程中不斷地思考“過去”與“現在” 。“當代”的另一個手段表現在投影語彙的使用,影像技術運用於劇場藝術 早已不是什麼稀奇之事。捷克建築師和舞台設計大師斯沃博達早在20世 紀中葉就開了此先河,並且一生不斷地持續實踐他的探索,他的設計對於 後來的劇場藝術產生了重要影響。由”59 Productions”設計並製作的影像 部分,着實給這部戲添了重力,“天體”、“數字”、“煉金術”夢幻般的景象在 舞台上時而疊加,時或抽離。這種視覺上的幻覺感,讓我着實像是在文藝 復興時代裡穿越了一次。

Musician Damon Albarn is a well- known rock star in the UK, and those who know about Blur and Gorillaz might be quite familiar with him. Damon was born in a middle-class family in England, whose father was the manager of Soft Machine and a prin- cipal of a college of art, and mother was a stage designer. Damon had taken part in shows when he was a child, so he is no stranger to theatrical art. He has an aversion to the narrow notion of ‘Great British Empire’ just like any other British rock youth. In 2007, he in cooperation with Chinese-American director Chen Shizheng created the play Monkey: Journey to the West. He is very curious about the world outside England, and he is also a man full of weird ideas, so, in his works, you can hardly find repetitive things. He traveled to China and Africa and used the music elements there in their own works. Of course, he is also influenced by the contemporary minimalist musicians, like Glass. When I sat in the theater listening to this play, I wonder, is this a play, a musical play, rock, or an ancient music of the Renaissance era? After much thinking, I stop taking it to heart lest for fear of ignoring such a good play at the present time. Because, creation has al- ways been ‘On the Road’! If there is no spirit of ‘On the Road’, there would be no ‘walking’.

音樂人丹蒙·阿爾伯恩在英國可謂是家喻戶曉的搖滾明星,瞭 解Blur樂隊、Gorillazd的人對於他應該不是很陌生。出生於英 國中產階級家庭的丹蒙,父親曾是微軟經理人,藝術院校的校 長,母親是一位舞台設計師。小時候的丹蒙還參與過表演,所 以他對於劇場藝術毫不陌生。他身上有着英國搖滾青年們對於“ 大英帝國”偏狹觀念的反感,2007年他曾與華裔導演陳士錚創 作了歌劇《西遊記》,他對於英國以外的世界充滿了好奇。他 也是一個有着奇奇怪怪想法的人,於是在他的作品中很難看見 重複的影子。他遊歷中國、非洲,並且將這裡的音樂元素用在 自己的作品中,當然他也很受當代極簡主義音樂家如格拉斯的 影響。當我坐在劇院裡聆聽這部歌劇時在想:“這是歌劇?還是 音樂劇?還是搖滾?或者文藝復興時代的古樂?”想來想去,我 不再糾結於此而忽略了一部當下這部好戲。因為創造一直就是“ 在路上”!沒有“在路上”的精神,那麼就不會有“行走”了。

As the conductor stops his baton, caws of another crowd of crows reach my ears, and they are also flying to the stage of the mysterious era.

當指揮收棒後,又是一群烏鴉的聒躁,它們又飛向了那個神秘 時代的舞台。

D6.ENO ‘Undress for Opera’ press launch © Alex Brenner

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