Text for student B

Parsifal WNO New Theatre

Cardiff and then on tour

Running time: 3 hrs 1O mins

Wagner's final, greatest and most philosophically problematic opera, Parsifal, is a huge undertaking, said Michael Kennedy in The Sunday Telegraph. And the fact that WNO even attempts to stage it is cause for rejoicing. The director, Silviu Purcarete, has "wisely" chosen a straightforward narrative approach where the main aim is to tell the story of how the holy fool Parsifal brings redemption to the Knights of the Grail. Purcarete emphasises "the Wagnerian theme of the conflict between spiritual asceticism and sensuality by contrasting the austere, grey realm of the grail-knights with the voluptuous, red-velvet-upholstered theatre-cum-Victorian-house milieu of the evil Klingsor's magic castle", said Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times. One of the great strengths of this production, said Rupert Christiansen in The Daily Telegraph, is that it grows out of the Sara Fulgoni (Kundry) with Stephen O'Mara (Parsifal) music, reflecting its subtleties and mysteries with a rare humility. Among the many images of simple, evocative beauty that Purcarete creates is the moment when the grail magically turns from gold to red as it fills with holy wine; and the usual bathos of the shot swan plonking down from the flies is replaced by the touching sight of a few white feathers floating down. There are nice touches, said Andrew Clements in The Guardian, but this is not on the same intellectual or theatrical level as recent productions. Musically, however, there's much to admire. The "unhinging power" of the score is beautifully presented by conductor Vladimir Jurowski, and there are two outstanding performances: from Alfred Reiter as Gurnemanz and Sara Fulgoni, who, in the role as Kundry, is "as seductive of tone as she is of appearance".

81. Which of Shakespeare's plays can the description be referred to? (The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Macbeth).

a) It's about evil and acts of evil, that are very difficult for most of us to understand. We read about evil, hear about it, and sometime are a witness to it. What are the conditions, circumstances, or motives of those who choose to do evil? At times it seems as if the heavens or goodness close their doors, shut their eyes, while evil, like a malignancy, grows, eating everything in its path until it finally turns on itself, weakens and dies or is destroyed.

The same question is always asked about Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and a hundred other tyrants great and small - how could this have happened? Evil is always present. Temptation is always around us. We don't always recognize it, but sometimes we must confront it. To do good or to do evil is a choice. When God spoke to Cain before the murder of Abel, he told him, "Thou mayest do well". A choice. Cain's choice. Like all of us, he was given free will.

b) It's debatably Shakespeare's last play. Many scholars think it was his farewell to the stage, and just as many will say it was not. One thing about the play that is only under partial debate is that it is his only original storyline. One fact is that after writing several tragedies, Shakespeare chose to return to comedy for one of his last plays.

The main theme of the play was, in its time, one of the hottest debates going: Natural man (as represented by the aboriginal population of the Amer­icans) versus civilization (as represented by Elizabethan England). Prospero versus Caliban. It is a theme that has followed mankind since the invention of the wheel.

c) The events that come to pass in the play seem to play themselves out in a society that has nothing to do but revel. Madness in its many forms -the madness of drunkenness, of new love discovered, of unfulfilled passion, the madness that new love will drive you to, the madness that ensues when everyone else claims you're mad — are all at work in this play, a play in which the royals, the well-borns, and the under classes sport both separately and together.

82. Scan the newspaper article for two minutes and answer the questions:

1. Who has created the script of Deathtrap?

2. Who does the play center around?

3. Who sends Bruhl a script entitled Deathtrap in the play?

4. Who has directed the production of Deathtrap?

5. Who plays Sidney Bruhl?

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04