晨讀英語(yǔ)美文60篇32 The Monster

[00:00.00]The Monster——Richard Wagner [00:08.62]He was an undersized little man, [00:11.49]with a head too big for his body — [00:14.03]a sickly little man. [00:15.69]His nerves were bad. [00:17.72]And he had delusions of grandeur. [00:20.85]He believed himself to be one of the greatest dramatists in the world, [00:25.68]one of the greatest thinkers, [00:27.57]and one of the greatest composers. [00:29.90]He wrote operas, [00:31.80]and no sooner did he have the synopsis of a story, [00:35.36]but he would invite—or rather summon — [00:38.27]a crowd of his friends to his house and read it aloud to them. [00:43.11]Not for criticism, but for applause. [00:45.66]When the complete poem was written, [00:48.38]the friends had to come again, [00:49.93]and hear that read aloud. [00:51.94]He played the piano by the hour like a composer, [00:56.19]in the worst sense of what that implies, [00:59.29]before parties including some of the finest pianist of his times. [01:04.30]He was almost innocent of any sense of responsibility. [01:08.65]Not only did he seem incapable of supporting himself, [01:12.86]but it never occurred to him that he was under any obligation to do so. [01:17.57]He was convinced that the world owed him a living. [01:22.11]In support of this belief, [01:24.78]he borrowed money from everybody who was good for a loan — [01:28.10]men, women, friends, or strangers. [01:31.99]I have found no record of his ever paying or repaying money to anyone [01:37.74]who did not have a legal claim upon it. [01:40.65]The name of this monster was Richard Wagner. [01:44.79]He was one of the most stupendous musical geniuses that, [01:48.91]up to now, [01:49.92]the world has ever seen. [01:51.86]When you consider what he wrote- [01:54.30]thirteen operas and music dramas, [01:56.99]eleven of them still holding the stage, [01:59.67]eight of them unquestionably worth ranking [02:02.91]among the world’s great music- dramatic masterpiece. [02:06.56]When you listen to what he wrote, [02:09.14]you will agree that a few thousand dollars’ [02:11.89]worth of debts were not too heavy a price to pay for the Ring trilogy. [02:17.13]Listening to his music, one does not forgive him for what he may or may not have been. [02:23.45]It is not a matter of forgiveness. [02:26.04]It is a matter of being dumb with wonder that his poor brain and body didn't burst [02:32.42]under the torment of the demon of creative energy that lived inside him, [02:37.31]struggling, clawing, [02:39.75]scratching to be released; [02:41.60]tearing, shrieking at him to write the music that was in him. [02:46.06]The miracle is that what he did in the little space of seventy years could have been done at all, [02:52.62]even by a great genius. [02:54.94]Is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man?

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