Performing arts in Britain: drama

 

Britain is one of the world's major centres for theatre and has a long and rich dramatic tradition. Actors, directors and audiences continue to perform and appreciate the classical British repertoire, such as works by Shakespeare, Sheridan and Priestly. Many present-day writers continue this standard of excellence and writers such as Harold Pinter and Alan Bennett have won international acclaim.

There is also a thriving experimental and avant-garde theatre movement. There is mime, theatre for young people, street theatre, community drama and drama that specifically represents the culture of different ethnic groups. In every town and village, amateur drama groups gather to perform plays, pantomimes, musicals. There are more than 6,000 amateur drama groups in England alone.

London's West End plays an important role in the success of drama in Britain. There are about 50 theatres in the West End of London, with a few larger theatres in the surrounding areas. London also has a thriving «fringe» theatre. People can choose from up to 60 different performances a night in a variety of small theatres in pubs, clubs and other venues. The West End has more theatres, more shows and larger audiences than Broadway in New York. Many jobs depend on West End theatre which is one of the biggest attractions to tourists visiting London. A show is regarded as a success when it moves from a regional theatre to London's West End and many British productions move from there to Broadway.

 

Vocabulary

acclaim – признание

thriving – процветающий

fringe – выходящий за рамки общепринятого

venue - место сбора

 

Продолжите предложения.

1. Britain has a long and...

2. There is also a thriving experimental and...

3. London's West End plays an important role...

4. People can choose...

5. A show is regarded as a success...

4. Найдите в тексте предложение, в котором сравниваются West End и Broadway.

Дополнительные тексты

An older new world

Between the «high culture» of the Metropolitan Opera and the humble but tasty enchilada, there's a broad stretch of traditional American arts and crafts which are no longer being taken for granted. Beginning in the 1960s with the back-to-the-land and the away-from-plastics movements, many of these traditional arts and crafts have enjoyed a widespread revival. Among those today which attract great interest are pottery and ceramics, glass art of all kinds, weaving and textile crafts, jewelry making and woodworking. Today there are substantial professional pottery and weaving colonies throughout the Southwest and Far West: they have been strongly influenced by both the Amerindian and Oriental traditions. America's long love affair with natural woods - going back to colonial times - is especially strong once again, with everything from the handmade traditional musical instruments to furniture such as the slender American rocking chair enjoying a renewed life. The distinctive American quilt, a product of traditional folk art, has also come alive once more. The enormous growth in quilting as an art and a craft in the past two or three decades in America has been matched by a rather astounding spread of quilting and quilters from Japan to Germany. Classes teaching such skills and crafts are extremely popular throughout the land.

The traditional building materials are also seen in the architecture commonly associated with the «great» informal lifestyles of the Pacific Northwest, northern California, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountain region. Its common markers are natural wood, unfinished natural stone and rock, glass, and its openness to the outdoors. Many Americans were long tired, or plain bored with the international style» of architecture, and along with a variety of modern experimentation have returned to the old. The more traditional regional architectures, the simple but elegant colonial styles of the Northeast, or the soft-shaped, adobe styles of the Southwest which meld with the tones of the land, are regaining ground. The restoration of Victorian homes and buildings in the Midwest has also become more important. The complete renovation of the old center of Boston did not and does not contradict that city's reputation as a technological, future-oriented center. In a way it is typical of America, living between the old and the new.

The queen of swans

Maya Plisetskaya is called «the choreographic miracle of the 20th century». Poems have been made about her, ballets have been created for her. When she graduated from the Moscow Ballet School company she became a principle dancer immediately. She was born into a family that was closely linked with practically all the arts: drama, cinema, music, painting, and ballet. Her teacher at School was Elisaveta Gerdt, a famous ballerina in the past. She made good progress but all failures irritated her. The gifted girl did not realize at first that dancing implied hard work above all.

«Оnсе I was asked», she recollects, «how many years I had learnt to dance and I said: ten years at first, and later all my life».

She had a definite theme in her art - the complex world of human emotions displayed in various ways. From the world treasury of classical ballets she has danced in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda, the roles of Odette and Odile, Zarema and Juliet. Great dancers had appeared in these parts before her. Plisetskaya introduced something of her own, and portrayed the characters glitteringly.

Full of inspiration, always unpredictable, with soft undulating arms and movements and an almost immaterial face, she flew onto the stage as lightly as a feather. Her movements follow the music and are like music. Her «eloquent arms» have been described interminably. Her arms are the best vehicle of her art. They bring poetry into her dance. They fill the whole space, the entire stage. One sees nothing but Plisetskaya's arms. Plisetskaya's symbol and best characterization has always been the Queen of Swans. It is impossible to imagine Swan Lake without Plisetskaya. She deserves the title of The Queen of Swans. This continued until people saw her in Carmen-Suite.

Dance without content and characterization, dance for the sake of dance is not her ideal. She likes drama filled with meaning and sense.

«I love drama that requires plastique and is musical. An artist must speak musically with both body and voice».

This attitude to the dramatic means of expression in ballet helped Plisetskaya to revive Chekhov's mood and atmosphere choreographically in her ballet The Seagull. Rodion Shchedrin helped her a great deal with his music.

Throughout her stage career ballerina Maya Plisetskaya has aroused the admiration of critics and audiences at home and abroad by her inimitable dance. Her dancing is daring and arrogant. At an amazingly fast tempo and with airy leaps her body sweeps across the stage. Conventional standards of appreciation and evaluation are not valid in appraising Plisetskaya's art. Plisetskaya is absolutely unique. What she has, on the one hand, is «Godsend talent», and on the other - unique mastery as a result of hard work, refined artistry, and dramatic gifts.

Metropolitan opera

In the 19th century, New York City's freshly minted millionaires found that they were unable to buy box seats at the New York Academy of Music because the Old Guard had a monopoly on them. So they took matters into their own hands and built a new opera house. The Metropolitan Opera opened in 1883, and by the turn of the century, it was one of the world's great theaters, attracting such artists as conductor Arturo Toscanini and tenor Enrico Caruso. The Met became a national institution in 1931, when its Saturday-matinee performances were broadcast nationwide on the radio. The broadcasts were a crucial source of revenue for the Met and kept it afloat throughout the Depression.

From the beginning, the Met focused on bringing international stars, such as Fyodor Chaliapin, Kirsten Flagstad, and Renata Tebaldi, to its stage. It wasn't until the late 1930s that the voices of many American singers began to be heard; thus began a parade of native talent that would include Leonard Warren, Roberta Peters, Leontyne Price, Sherrill Milnes, Jerr Hadley. Since the 1970s, broadcasts on public television have featured both American and foreign artists, such as Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Thomas Hampson, Cecilia Bartoli, and have brought the Met bigger than ever.

It should be mentioned that James Morris, one of today's foremost Wagnerian singers, made his debut at the Met at age 23. Maria Callas was noted for her superb musicianship and dramatic flair. She spurred the revival of 19th-century bel canto operas.