Unit 2 SectionⅠWelcome to the unit Reading 课件（牛津译林版选修8） .ppt

Then Liu grabs a sword from a guard and kills herself. When it becomes evident what happened, Calaf scolds Turandot for not being more merciful.However, though he is angry, he still loves her.Calaf kisses Turandot. Turandot’s heart grows softer, but is still quite hard.She demands that he leave.Instead, he tells her his name—just before the dawn deadline—and says that she can kill him if she wishes. At the end of the story, the prince and princess unite in marriage, and the whole city celebrates their happiness. Unfortunately, Puccini died of a heart attack before he completed this final scene，and it had to be completed by one of his former students, Franco Alfano.An opera company staged the opera in Beijing in the 1990s, but the performance I saw was the first time Turandot was staged inside the Forbidden City.The production combined the very best of Western and Chinese talents.The music was conducted by Zubin Mehta, a superb conductor, who was born in India.The opera was directed by Zhang Yimou, a well-known Chinese director. In the Beijing performance I saw, Turandot was played by Sharon Sweet from the USA, Liu was played by another opera singer from the USA, Barbara Hendricks, and Calaf was sung by Kristjan Johannsson from Iceland.They were all excellent. The Forbidden City was once only accessible to the emperor, his family and senior officials.However, in this wonderful production, it has been transformed into the spot for a beautiful and sad love story. The bringing together of this group of people from many countries, the music, and the grand setting are clearly the key components of this amazing production. 《图兰朵》在北京 简·琼斯 昨天晚上，我目睹了贾科莫·普契尼闻名世界的歌剧《图兰朵》在中国北京紫禁城的首场演出，该歌剧在这里只演八场。演出异彩纷呈。 几位世界级歌剧演唱家在演出中担任主演，许多杰出的中国音乐家也参与进来。普契尼是意大利人，1920年至1924年期间，在他的生命快要走向终点之际，他创作了《图兰朵》。普契尼非常喜欢东亚，还创作了以日本为背景的《蝴蝶夫人》。 想象一下在紫禁城上演这出歌剧吧——不可能有比这儿更令人叹为观止的场景了！你几乎可以感受到历史。天气对于户外演出来说也是绝佳的。覆盖着红色和金色的经过装饰的屏风代替了舞台帷幕，传统的中国鼓被用来宣告歌剧的开场。 《图兰朵》讲述的是一位顽固、冷酷的中国公主图兰朵的故事，她住在北京紫禁城里。故事中，中国的皇帝，即图兰