我的朋友谢炳顺（四）

Joanna C.Lee

小瓊：新冠肺炎让我们不少人被迫待在家中。不过，音乐家们大都是随机应变的人，当中尤其有创新精神的一位就是我多才多艺的朋友——谢炳顺。他最近创作了不少令人惊叹的阿卡贝拉音乐视频，由他一个人演唱所有的声部。

小薇：你上个月跟我说，要再多聊聊他在纽约传奇的阿马托歌剧院的工作经历。

小琼：这是家小剧团，1948年由两位勇往直前又敢于实践的纽约人——托尼与莎莉·阿马托夫妇共同创立。阿马托歌剧院的61个歌剧季均在仅能容纳107人的“剧院”里演出，舞台也很小。

小薇：谢炳顺年轻时在那里演出过吗？

小琼：许多音乐家的生涯都是在那里开始的。以下是谢炳顺的一些回忆：

托尼·阿马托在新泽西州出生，但却深深浸淫于意大利的歌剧传统，因而从头到脚都像是从19世纪穿越而来的人。有一天晚上，我提早到了排练现场，在剧院后面闲逛准备做什么，这时他突然经过，于是我们开始聊天。他跟我说那个星期他去看了新出的《星球大战》系列电影，特别喜欢，就是觉得特效跟剧情有点夸张过头了。我没想过这位从来只喜欢讨论普契尼、威尔第、莫扎特，还有什么总谱、舞台调度、歌剧传统，以及各种音乐趣闻的老先生会去看电影，更不用说《星球大战》了。

还有一次我们排《风流寡妇》里某场戏的时候，有个演员忘词了，当时他本应看手里拿的扇子后面写了什么然后念出来（剧里他的情人在扇子背面写了“我爱你”，那一场要问他上面写了什么），该演员灵机一动，愣了一下，然后说：“中国制造？”大家都笑翻了！托尼特别喜欢，之后的《风流寡妇》制作都保留了这句台词。

小薇：托尼·阿马托2010年出版了名为《世界上最小的大歌剧院》的回忆录，一年后便去世了。我在想书中会不会提到了谢炳顺。

Joan： COVID-19 has forced many of us to stay at home. But musicians are resourceful people， and one of the more inventive is my multi-talented friend Phillip Cheah. Hes been creating amazing videos of a cappella music， singing all the vocal parts himself.

Valery： Last month， you promised to tell me more about Phillips involvement with the legendary Amato Opera Theater in New York.

Joan： This small company was founded in 1948 by the husband-and-wife team Tony and Sally Amato， intrepid New Yorkers with a “can-do” attitude. The Amato Opera produced 61 opera seasons in an“opera house” that only seated 107. And the stage was tiny， too！

Valery： So Phillip performed there when he was younger？

Joan： Many musicians got their start there！ Here are Phillips memories：

Tony Amato， who hailed from New Jersey but， being so steeped in the Italian operatic tradition， seemed for all intents and purposes like an anachronistic man from the 19th century. There was one evening when I was early to a rehearsal and hung out at the back of the house to do some work when he walked by and started chatting. He told me about how he had gone to the movies earlier that week to watch the new Star Wars movie that had just come out and how much he enjoyed it even though he thought the special effects and plot were a little over the top. I would never expect a man who only ever talked about Puccini and Verdi and Mozart or operatic traditions in the score or stage blocking or other musical tidbits to watch a movie， let alone Star Wars.

Another time， we were rehearsing The Merry Widow and one of the actors had forgotten his line during a scene when he was supposed to look behind a fan that he was holding to read what was written. （His lover， who had written “I love you” at the back of the fan earlier in the operetta， was asking him in the scene， “Well？？ What does it say？”） The actor， in a moment of hilarious brilliance， hesitated for a moment， and then said， “Made in China？” We all lost it right after that. And Tony loved it so much， he kept the line for all future productions.

Valery： Tony Amato published a memoir in 2010 entitled The Smallest Grand Opera in the World， a year before his death. I wonder if it mentioned Phillip.