《特洛埃勒斯与克雷雪达》重返歌剧舞台

Troilus and Cressida rescued from obscurity in St.Louis

歌剧以《特洛埃勒斯与克雷雪达》（Troilus and Cressida）为名，在许多莎士比亚迷们的心中激起涟漪，但却在众多歌剧爱好者中鲜为人知。尽管如此，圣路易斯歌剧院的艺术总监科林·格拉姆提议改编沃顿的《特洛埃勒斯与克雷雪达》，让它重返歌剧舞台。6月21日晚，这部歌剧在圣路易斯歌剧院的成功上演引起了人们的强烈反响，这点出乎意料之外。

The title Troilus and Cressida rings a bell with Shakespeare fans but has little reso- nance among opera-goers.And yet it headlined an unexpectedly riveting evening at the Opera Theatre of St.Louis on June 21.The opera (not actually based on Shakespeare's drama) by the British composer William Walton had a fairly well received world premiere in 1954,but ever since then it has been heard only a handful of times.Charles MacKay,the general director,of- fered a hypothesis.The scale of this opera has been off-putting to potential producers.But this problem can be solved,as the St.Louis performances demonstrated with a new per- forming edition for a smaller orchestra:Troilus, though flawed,has proved to be a highlight of St Louis's month-long opera festival.