2. 职称英语
  3. 　　(1) Like many historical films, Amadeus is far from a faithful account of wha

　　(1) Like many historical films, Amadeus is far from a faithful account of wha

游客2023-11-24  21
问题 　　(1)  Like many historical films, Amadeus is far from a faithful account of what is known about the period and the people that it portrays. Events are exaggerated, condensed and simplified, and the complexity of real characters is reduced to suit the needs of a dramatic contrast between good and evil. Such historical liberties are often bemoaned by experts, but few have seemed to mind the wayward story points of Amadeus. This is no doubt partly attributable to the film’s high entertainment value; it is an unusually lively and funny historical film. It revels in the boyish humor and high spirits of its main character, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791), played with jubilant gusto by Tom Hulce. But the film’s appeal is also attributable to Mozart’s music. The composer’s vulgar hijinks (狂 欢作乐) serve as a contrast to the transcendent beauty of his music, beautifully performed on the soundtrack by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Thus, even the most stringent historical purists couldn’t help but find something to enjoy in Amadeus.
　　(2)  For all its liberties, the story is actually based on a real rumor that circulated in Vienna in the 1820s. While gravely ill, the rival composer Antonio Salieri (1750 -1825) confessed he had murdered Mozart decades earlier by poisoning him. Salieri was suffering from dementia (痴呆) at the time of this confession, and he later withdrew it, but some—including Mozart’s widow Constanze—chose to believe the claim. More than 150 years later, the English playwright Peter Shaffer based the story of Amadeus not just on Salieri’s confession but also the idea that Salieri had suffered from a deep and bitter jealousy of Mozart throughout the ten years that they both lived and worked as composers in Vienna. In the fun-loving Mozart, the story goes, Salieri saw a true genius—one who made his own talent and accomplishments appear mediocre—and this drove him on a vendetta (宿怨) that ultimately culminated in murder.
　　(3)  Shaffer’s story makes for great drama, but it is, of course, biased against Salieri. In fact, at the time, Salieri was regarded as the more accomplished musician and composer. From the 1770s through the 1790s, he composed dozens of operas, many of them proving popular and considered innovative. A mark of his prominence was his appointment to the influential post of Kapellmeister, or musical director, to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. Salieri was also a teacher whose pupils included Ludwig Van Beethoven, Franz Liszt and Franz Schubert. In his private life, he may not have had Mozart’s exuberance but nor was he the lonely and celibate man played with such convincing severity by F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus. Salieri was married at the time he knew Mozart, and he fathered no fewer than eight children.
　　(4)  If Salieri had little reason to fear or resent Mozart’s success, there was naturally a degree of rivalry between two men working in the same profession and in the same city. Salieri (born near Verona) and Mozart (born in Salzburg) belonged to separate musical groups, and Italian and German opera fell into and out of favor during this period. The composers were therefore vying for work, including the prestigious post of musical tutor to the Princess of Wiirttemberg, which Salieri successfully attained. As composers, they saw their operas’ debut side by side, yet there is little evidence of any animosity between them. Mozart did complain in a letter to his father that Joseph II favored Salieri over all other composers, but that observation was an accurate one. Both Mozart and his father suspected that, behind the scenes, Salieri tried to undermine Mozart’s success, but these were hardly unusual suspicions in a field so reliant on patronage. In public, fellow composers reported that Mozart and Salieri were friendly with another. Shortly after the premiere of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Salieri attended a performance with Mozart, and applauded warmly and vigorously. Thus, any ill feeling between Mozart and Salieri was borne by the former rather than the latter—contrary to what is strongly depicted in Amadeus—and it stemmed from Salieri’s status and success rather than his perceived mediocrity.
　　(5)   Mozart’s resentments were those of a younger man struggling for position in the world. Although he had talent, he spent many years struggling to find a suitable post or patronage. He and his father travelled widely during his youth, seeking a distinguished appointment but finding mainly low pay and occasionally humiliating circumstances. It was in the period after 1781, when Mozart defied his father and decided to live and work independently in Vienna that his career flourished. In the space of ten years, he found great success with the operas The Abduction from Seraglio (1782), The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and The Magic Flute (1791). These were composed alongside his piano concertos, symphonies and chamber music, and together with his work as a performer and teacher, his success brought a high income. Mozart’s money troubles were the result of excessive spending, and his volatile temperament, rather than any malicious schemes against him. His death, at the age of 35, was not considered suspicious at the time as he had been ill for weeks with a fever. While it is true that he had a commoner’s funeral, in 18th-century Vienna this was not unusual for a man of non-aristocratic standing. It certainly was not a mark of his downfall or ignominy, as implied by the film. At his death, Mozart was second in stature only to Salieri as Vienna’s most prominent musician and composer.
　　(6) The drama of Amadeus stems not from historical accuracies, but from our contemporary knowledge that Mozart’s music and reputation have survived for centuries—and continued to find new, zesty audiences—while Salieri’s name and work quickly faded. Mozart’s secondary status during his own lifetime thus appears unjust and unwarranted, and he is invested with the role of the struggling artist and unappreciated genius. This may be shaky history, but the film has enough laughter, conflict, romance and tragedy to please any opera lover, except perhaps for Salieri himself, who undoubtedly would have told the tale in an altogether different key. [br] Throughout the passage, the author attempts mainly to__
选项 A、examine how the film appeals to modern audience
B、provide an account of Mozart as a talented musician
C、highlight the entertainment value of the film Amadeus
D、correct some distorted personal details in the film
答案 D
解析 主旨大意题。解答主旨题时，要重点关注文章首末段和中间段的主题句。纵观全文，文章第一段提到，和许多历史题材的影片一样，《莫扎特传》对时代和人物的描绘与真实情况大相径庭。在接下来的段落中又提到，影片中的故事源自一则谣言和影片中对萨列里的偏见，进而分析萨列里和莫扎特之间产生芥蒂的原因。文章末段提到，该影片的戏剧性情节并非源自真实的历史事实。可见，作者在整篇文章中着重强调的是影片中的不实内容，故D为答案。
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