Unit 3
1 TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
OK, now the painting we are looking at now is by the French painter
Toulouse-Lautrec.
The painting is called At the Moulin Rouge. As you probably know The
Moulin Rouge is a nightclub in Paris. Maybe some of you remember the
film Moulin Rouge? In the 19th century, the nightclub was very famous
for its beautiful dancers and singers.
Toulouse-Lautrec did a lot of paintings and posters of the Moulin
Rouge. He especially loved painting the dancers. And in these
paintings he sometimes included his friends too.
In the middle of the picture there are five people who are sitting at
a table having a drink. The woman who's wearing a hat is a dancer -
her name is La Macarona - and the man sitting next to her on the left
is a friend of Toulouse-Lautrec. He was a photographer. On the right,
here, there's a woman with fair hair, blue eyes, and very red lips.
Her face looks very white. That's another famous dancer called Jane
Avril. At the back of the picture, on the right, there are two women
who are standing together. One of them is touching her hair. That's La
Goulue, and she was one of the most famous singers at the Moulin Rouge
at that time.
Now, this is very interesting. If you look carefully to the left of
the two women, there are two men walking out of the nightclub. One of
them is very tall and the other one is very short. The very tall man
is Toulouse-Lautrec's cousin Gabriel, and the other man is
Toulouse-Lautrec himself. Toulouse-Lautrec was only 1 metre 50
centimetres tall. He had very short legs and couldn't walk very well.
Some people think that this is why he loved painting the dancers of
the Moulin Rouge. . . because they all had beautiful, long legs.
So, if you’d like to follow me, we’ll be moving into another room now.
2 SINGING SCHOOL
Interviewer Good evening and welcome. In today's programme we're going
to talk about singing. In the studio we have Martin, the director of a
singing school in London and Gemma a student at Martin's school. Good
morning to both of you.
Martin & Gemma Good morning.
Interviewer First Martin, can you tell us, why is it a good idea for
people to learn to sing?
Martin First, because singing makes you feel good. And secondly
because singing is very good for our health.
Interviewer Really? In what way?
Martin Well, when you learn to sing you need to learn to breathe
correctly. That's very important. And you also learn to stand and sit
correctly. As a result, people who sing are often fitter and healthier
than people who don't.
Interviewer Are your courses only for professional singers?
Martin No, not at all. They're for everybody. You don't need to have
any experience of singing. And you don't need to be able to read
music.
Interviewer So how do your students learn to sing?
Martin They learn by listening and repeating. Singing well is really
95% listening.
Interviewer OK, Gemma. Tell us about the course. How long did it last?
Gemma Only one day. From ten in the morning to six in the evening.
Interviewer Could you already sing well before you started?
Gemma No, not well. But I have always liked singing. But I can't read
music and I never thought I sang very well.
Interviewer So what happened on the course?
Gemma Well, first we did a lot of listening and breathing exercises
and we learnt some other interesting techniques.
Interviewer What sort of things?
Gemma Well, for example we learnt that it is easier to sing high notes
if you sing with a surprised look on your face!
Interviewer Oh really? Could you show us?
Gemma Well, I'll try.
Interviewer For those of you at home, I can promise w that Gemma
looked very surprised. Were you happy with your progress?
Gemma Absolutely. At the end of the day we were singing in almost
perfect harmony. It was amazing. In just one day we really were much
better.
Interviewer Could you two give us a little demonstration?
Martin & Gemma Oh, OK.