娛樂資訊:回顧麥當娜海德公園演唱會

Neil McCormick reviews US pop star Madonna's concert at Hyde Park, part of her MDNA Tour.

尼爾.麥考米克回顧了美國流行天后麥當娜在海德公園的演唱會，這次演唱會是她MDNA世界巡演的一部分。

No one pulled the plug on Madonna at Hyde Park. Well, Who would dare? Judging by the content of this show, she might garrotte, kick, shoot or whip any antagonist, then make a sanctimonious speech about world peace over their broken and bleeding body.

沒有人在麥當娜海德公園演唱會中提前離場，誰敢？從本場演唱會的內容判斷，麥當娜可能會絞殺、腳踢、射殺或者鞭打任何與她作對的人，然後假裝虔誠地站在他們破碎流血的身體上發表一番關於世界和平的演說。

It was a typically sensationalist and schizophrenic Madonna production, mixing sex, ultra violence, religion, kitsch and politics to bizarre but entertaining effect.

這是一場典型的譁衆取寵且精神分裂的麥當娜作品，混雜有性、極端暴力、宗教、低俗趣味和政治色彩，營造出怪誕卻具有娛樂性的效果。

It has been an interesting week of Hyde Park concerts, with big guns all impressing in very different ways. Springsteen did it with charisma, emotional content and dynamic rock power. Paul Simon did it with subtlety, detail and complex musical interplay. Madonna did it with lights, dancers, giant video screens, hydraulics, costume changes, flying drummers, tightrope walking, cheerleaders, a basque folk trio ... And music too.

海德公園這一週的演唱會十分有趣，諸多大腕用各自不同的方式表示自我。斯普林斯廷演唱會一呼百應，情感充沛，用充滿活力的搖滾震撼全場。保羅?西蒙則是用燈光、舞蹈演員、巨型屏幕、液壓裝置、服飾變換、飛行鼓手、鋼絲行走、啦啦隊員、巴斯克民樂三人組等等來充實演唱會，當然，除了這些，也有音樂。

I have criticised Madonna in the past for an over reliance on backing tracks and backing singers to fill in the vocal gaps while she's doing her yoga moves. But amidst the autotuned super choreographed dance productions, the real highlight of this show was a stripped back version of Like A Virgin, performed to piano and violin in the style of Brechtian cabaret. Fragile and intense, it openly embraced the ever present subtext of her age, displaying a sexual vulnerability that was far more resonant and effective than her brief stint as a superannuated cheerleader during Gimme All Ure Luvvin. I honestly did not suspect she had that performance in her. It suggests that she might actually have somewhere creative to go as her pop appeal wanes.

我過去一直批評麥當娜過於依賴背景音樂和背景歌手來填補她進行瑜伽動作時聲音的空白。但是在這次非常棒的精心設計的舞蹈演出當中，演唱會真正的高潮是精簡版本的"Like A Virgin"，由鋼琴和小提琴伴奏，展現了布萊希特歌舞表演的風格。表演輕柔而熱烈，公開了麥當娜的年齡，展現了人的性慾弱點，比她曾經短期作爲Gimme All Ure Luvvin老邁的啦啦隊長時展示得更爲淋漓盡致。坦白來講，我並不懷疑她有能力進行這樣的表演。這表明當麥當娜號召力逐漸衰退時，她或許真的還有可以挖掘的地方。

Her latest album, MDNA, has been a bit of a flop, in large part I suspect because she's trying too hard to keep up with the kids. Live she plays to different strengths, emphasising her showomanship with enough drama and spectacle to cover up the gap in class between her classic hits and rather more feeble recent stabs at electropop. The opening section is actually quite unpleasantly aggressive, particularly the blood spatter and multiple murders set piece for Gang Bang, although its hard to deny that aggression suits her. Madonna stomps around the set in black leather like an aging dominatrix, which is hard to equate with the love in at the end, with monks, Bhuddists and gospel singers joining in a happy clappy version of Like A Prayer.

麥當娜最新專輯《MDNA》遭遇慘敗，在很大程度上我認爲是因爲她過於努力地想要跟隨年輕人的步伐。她發揮自己各種各樣的優勢，通過相當多的戲劇和宏大的舞臺強調她女性表現力，掩蓋她曾經的經典與現如今在電子流行樂壇裏糟糕的表現之間的差距。開場部分非常暴力，尤其是鮮血飛濺，多重謀殺爲接下來的街頭暴力進行鋪墊，儘管說不可否認暴力很適合她，但是讓人感覺很不愉快。麥當娜身穿黑色皮革，像一個上了年紀的母夜叉，在舞臺上奮力跺腳，但是結尾以“愛”結束，和尚、佛教徒、福音歌手紛紛加入歡樂版“Like A Prayer”的表演當中，開頭的暴力血腥與結尾的溫馨風格完全不同。

But Madonna makes no attempt at consistency. Perhaps that's part of her genius, everything and anything goes. During Express Yourself, she even threw in a few bars of Lady GaGa's 'Born This Way', then danced around singing "She's not me, she's not me." For sheer wacky mass pop entertainment, Madonna proved herself more than equal to the challenge of all her young pretenders.

但是麥當娜並不試圖保持一致，或許這就是她天賦的一部分，什麼都敢於嘗試。在演唱“Express Yourself”過程中，她甚至向觀衆拋灑Lady Gaga“Born This Way”的棒子，然後邊跳邊唱，“她不是我，她不是我”。對於怪誕十足的大衆流行娛樂來說，麥當娜向世人證明了自己仍然能夠給後起之秀們造成足夠的威脅。