You must have read or heard of the love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu from the classic Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼梦》). But can you imagine the singing opera (歌剧) in English?
Recently, the novel has been made into an English-language opera. After being performed in San Francisco, US, the performances came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan. It is welcomed both at home and abroad. Many of the opera’s creators have backgrounds in both Chinese and American culture. Their understanding of both cultures helped them to change a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera. The opera writer David Henry Huang cut down the number of characters to just seven. Huang, a Chinese-American, focused on the love story between Jia and Lin instead of the rise and fall of the Jia family so that everyone would understand. The art director Timmy Yip tried to help foreign people understand the characters using costumes and stage settings (布景). He compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume. When Lin shows up on stage, there is usually water around her on the stage.
It isn’t the first time that they have made an opera adapted from Chinese literature (文学). The creators consider it to be a meaningful job to introduce a Chinese classic to western audiences, spreading Chinese culture to the world. They are happy to have made a contribution to the land where their parents were born.
【小题1】The opera was ________.
| A．sung in Japanese | B．first performed in San Francisco |
| C．written by Timmy Yip | D．performed in many languages |
【小题2】Why can many opera’s creators turn a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera?
| A．Because Chinese traditional classics show us how ancient people express their love. |
| B．Because foreign-language opera is welcomed both at home and abroad. |
| C．Because they have a better understanding of Chinese and American cultures. |
| D．Because only Chinese culture is the best culture in the world. |
【小题3】The underlined word “adapted” in Paragraph 5 means “________” in Chinese.
【小题4】According to the passage, we can infer (推断) that ________.
| A．it’s easy for the creators to make the opera |
| B．there may be more operas adapted from western literature |
| C．the creators feel proud to introduce Chinese culture to westerners |
| D．the creators made an opera adapted from Chinese literature only once |
【小题5】The best title for this passage is ________.
| A．The Rise and Fall of the Jia Family |
| B．An English-language Opera of A Dream of Red Mansions |
| C．Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu Sing Foreign Opera |
| D．The Love Story Between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu |
