世界名人故事之演员明星 第4期:Vanessa-Mae 陈美

 　　4 Vanessa-Mae 4 陈美

　　Vanessa-Mae has been called a Paganini in hot pants.  陈美曾被称为穿热裤的帕格尼尼，

　　Or, to put it another way: she dresses to kill, but you ain't seen anything yet till you see her pick up a violin. 或者换种说法：她穿着火辣，但直到她拿起小提琴，你才知道她的厉害。

　　Half Thai and half Chinese, Vanessa-Mae Vanakom Nicholson was born in Singapore and grew up in London.  一半泰国血统，一半华人血统，陈美出生于新加坡，在伦敦长大。

　　She took up the violin at the age of five.  她自五岁起开始学琴。

　　By the time she was eleven, the Director of the Royal College of Music was calling her a “true child prodigy¹ - like Mozart and Mendelssohn”. 到十一岁时, 英国皇家音乐学院的院长已经称她为“真正的神童——就像莫扎特与孟德尔颂一样”。

　　She was a rising star in the world of classical music, but Vanessa-Mae also had some ideas of her own about music.  她在古典音乐界声誉日隆，但陈美对于音乐有自己的一套想法。

　　As a teenager, she began experimenting with her talent, and released The Violin Player, which she called a techno acoustic² fusion³ album.  青少年时她开始试验自己的才华，并推出《小提琴玩家》——她称之为计算机合成音乐与听觉特效融和的专辑，

　　It featured both traditional and electric violin, hit the U.K. pop charts, and went multiplatinum. 其中以传统小提琴与电子小提琴结合为特色，登上英国流行音乐排行榜，并夺得数张白金唱片。

　　Some critics objected to the video of Vanessa-Mae playing a techno-pop version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in a wet T-shirt,  一些乐评家对于陈美穿着一件湿T恤演奏计算机合成音乐流行版的巴哈《触技与賦格》感到十分不以为然，

　　and scratched their heads when they heard that she would be playing a violin solo on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet⁴ Rope album.  又听说她会在珍娜杰克森的《华丽的冒险》专辑中表演一首小提琴独奏时，也表示无法认同。

　　Vanessa-Mae responded: “When you’re brave enough to do something new, people are always threatened by it.” 陈美的反应是：“当你有足够勇气去尝试新事物时，人们总是倍感威胁。”

　　Few audiences that see Vanessa-Mae give alive performance have any objections. 看过陈美现场演奏的听众很少人会否认陈美的表演。

　　Most often they are left awestruck, roaring for an encore. 他们大多是感到震慑，大声叫着“再来一个”。

1 prodigy   

n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆

参考例句：

• She was a child prodigy on the violin.她是神童小提琴手。
• He was always a Negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.他始终是一个黑人的奇才，这种奇才弹奏起来粗野而惊人。

2 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

3 fusion   

n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。

4 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。