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第1段
1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in a music history class. The professor has been discussing Opera.
旁白：听一段关于音乐史的讲座。这位教授在讨论歌剧。
第2段
1 .<-MALE PROFESSOR:->The word opera means “work.” Actually, it means “works.”
教授：“歌剧”这个词的意思是“作品”，实际上，它的意思是“很多作品”。
2 .It's the plural of the word"opus"from the Latin.
它是拉丁语中“opus”的复数形式。
3 .And in Italian it refers in general to works of art.
在意大利语中，它总体指的就是艺术作品。
4 .“Opera lyrica,” or lyric opera, refers to what we think of as opera, the musical drama.
“Opera lyrica”或者抒情歌剧，指的就是我们说的歌剧，音乐剧。
5 .Opera was commonplace in Italy for almost thousands of years before it became commercial as a venture.
歌剧在意大利司空见惯，在它成为商业活动之前，已经有几千年的历史了。
6 .And during those years several things happened primarily linguistic or thematic and both involving secularization.
而在那几年，一些事情发生了，主要是语言和主题的变化，而且两者都涉及到了世俗化（secularization）的过程。
第3段
1 .Musical drama started in the churches. It was an educational tool.
歌剧起源于教堂，它是一种教育工具。
2 .It was used primarily as a vehicle for teaching religion and was generally presented in Latin, the language of the Christian Church, which had considerable influence in Italy at that time.
它主要被用作宗教教学的工具，通常是由拉丁语写成的，拉丁语是教会使用的语言，而且在意大利影响很广。
3 .But the language of everyday life was evolving in Europe, and at a certain point in the Middle Ages, it was really only merchants, aristocrats, and clergy who can deal with Latin.
但是日常生活的语言在欧洲不断发展，在中世纪的某段时间，真正的只有贵族、商人和神职人员才会拉丁文。
4 .The vast majority of the population used their own regional vernacular in all aspects of their lives, and so, in what is now Italy, operas quit being presented in Latin and started being presented in Italian.
在生活的大多数时间里，大多数人都会用地方土话(vernacular)，所以在意大利，歌剧不再用拉丁文了，而开始使用意大利语。
5 .And once that happened, the themes of the opera presentations also started to change, and musical drama moved from the church to the plaza right outside the church.
一旦这种情况发生，歌剧表达的主题也开始发生了改变，而且音乐剧从教堂搬到了教堂外面的广场上。
6 .And the themes again, the themes changed, and opera was no longer about teaching religion as it was about satire, and about expressing the ideas of society or government without committing yourself to writing and risking imprisonment or persecution or what have you.
主题一次又一次发生变更，歌剧不再是关于教授宗教，而是关于讽刺的，关于表达对社会和政府的想法，还不用担心因为书面上的东西而被扔进监狱或者受到迫害等等。
第4段
1 .Opera, as we think of it, is of course a resurrected form.
歌剧，正如我们所认为的，其实是一个被复兴（resurrected）的艺术。
2 .It is the melodious drama of ancient Greek theater, the term "melodious drama" being shortened eventually to "melodrama" because operas frequently are melodramatic, not to say unrealistic.
它是声调优美的戏剧，源自古希腊剧院。“声调优美的戏剧”（melodious drama）被最终简化成了“情节剧”（melodrama），因为歌剧往往是音乐性的，而且有戏剧情节的，甚至超现实的。
3 .And the group that put the first operas together that we have today then,were, well... it was a group of men that included Galileo's father Vincenzo, and they met in Florence he and a group of friends of the Count of Bardi and they formed what is called the Giovanni de' Bardi.
完整创作出第一部我们现有的歌剧一群人，包括伽利略（Galileo)的父亲凡山杜（Venchesil）。他和一群朋友在佛罗伦萨碰面了，然后组建了一个乐队，叫做Camarola DayirBardy）。
4 .And they took classical theater and reproduced it in the Renaissance time.
他们把传统戏剧在文艺复兴时期重新演绎了。
5 .This... uh... this produced some of the operas that we have today.
这产生了一些我们现在看到的一些歌剧。
第5段
1 .Now, what happened in the following centuries is very simple.
那么，在接下来的几个世纪里发生的事情很简单。
2 .Opera originated in Italy but was not confined to Italy any more than Italians were.
歌剧发源于意大利，但就像意大利人一样，它并不只被禁锢在了意大利。
3 .And so as the Italians migrated to across Europe, they carried theater with them and opera specifically because it was an Italian form.
当意大利移民横跨欧洲，他们带来了戏剧，尤其是歌剧，因为它就是意大利特色的。
4 .What happened is that the major divide in opera that endures today took place.
今天我们看到的歌剧的格局就在那时候形成了。
5 .The French said opera ought to reflect the rhythm and cadence of dramatic literature, bearing in mind that we are talking about the golden age in French literature.
法国人认为歌剧就应该反映戏剧文学的韵律性和节奏性（cadence），想想看我们讲的是法国文学的黄金时代。
6 .And so the music was secondary, if you will, to the dramatic cadence of language, to the way the rhythm of language was used to express feeling and used to add drama, and of course as a result, instead of arias, or solos which would come to dominate Italian opera, the French relied on what the Italians called “recitativo” or “recitative” in English, the lyrics were spoken... frequently to the accompaniment of a harpsichord.
所以，音乐是次要的，语言的节奏及韵律被用来表达情感和添加戏剧性，自然而然，取代意大利歌剧的主导风格—咏叹调（arias）和独唱，法国人主要使用意大利人所称的吟咏调，这种形式中歌词通常被朗诵出来，在大提琴的伴奏下。
第6段
1 .The French said, “You really can’t talk about real people who lived, in opera.” And they relied on mythology to give them their characters and their plots. Mythology, the pastoral traditions the... the... novels of chivalry, or the epics of chivalry out of the Middle Ages.
法国人说：“你不能谈论存在于歌剧中人.”他们依靠神话来给他们人物角色和情节。神话故事，过去的传统故事，骑士小说，中世纪的骑士史诗等等。
2 .The Italians said, “No, this is a great historical tool, and what better way to educate the public about Nero or Attila, or any number of people than to put them into a play they can see and listen to.”
意大利人说：“不，这是一个伟大的历史工具，还有什么比把尼罗（古罗马皇帝）和匈奴王融合在可以看到和听到的歌剧里更好的方式来教育公众。”
3 .The English appropriated opera after the French.
英国人在法国人之后也接受了歌剧。
4 .Opera came late to England because all theaters, public theaters were closed, of course, during their civil war.
歌剧进入英国很晚，因为所有的剧院，公共剧场，都在他们的内战中停业了。
5 .And it wasn't until the restoration in 1660 that public theaters again opened and opera took off.
直到1660 的修复令才使得公共剧院重新开放，而歌剧随之进入了英国。
6 .The English made a major adjustment to opera and exported what they had done to opera back to Italy.
英国人为意大利歌剧做出了进一步的改进，并将它们输入回了意大利。
7 .So that you have this circle of musical influences. The Italians invented opera. The French adapted it. The English adopted it. The Italians took it back.
所以你看到了音乐互相影响而形成的环状效应。意大利人发明了歌剧，法国人修改了它，英国人吸收了它，意大利人带回了歌剧。
第7段
1 .It came to America late and was considered too elitist for the general public, but Broadway musicals fulfilled a similar function for a great long while.
歌剧传进美国的时间较晚，并被看作是脱离大众的精英文化，但百老汇的音乐剧在很长一段时间里扮演了相似的角色。
2 .John J. Chapman wrote about opera, quote, “If an extraterrestrial being were to appear before us and say, ‘What is your society like? What is this Earth thing all about?’ you could do worse than take that creature to an opera,” end quote.
John.J.Chapman 在写关于歌剧的文章时说“如果一个外星物种突然出现在我们面前说：你的社会是什么样，地球到底是什么回事？你至少可以带着它去看歌剧。”
3 .Because opera does, after all, begin with a man and a woman and an emotion.
毕竟，歌剧是由一个男人，一个女人，和某种情感开始的。