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Culture
文艺版块
Live performances
现场演出
Two-billion-dollar baby
两百万美元宝贝
Does the Sphere showcase the future of concerts?
球体场馆展示了演唱会的未来样貌吗？
Nestled between hotels and conference centres, a short walk from the Las Vegas strip, is a giant, wide-eyed emoji.
在各大酒店和会议中心之间，离赌城大道不远就能看到一个巨大的、睁大眼睛的表情符号。
Sometimes it is an enormous, hyperrealistic eyeball, a basketball or a whorl of flames.
有时它是一个巨大的、超现实的眼球，有时是一个篮球或一团火焰。
The Sphere, a remarkable new concert venue, is 366 feet (110 metres) tall and 516 wide; an LED screen spanning almost 600,000 square feet covers the exterior.
这个建筑叫球体，是一个引人注目的演唱会新场地，高366英尺(110米)，宽516英尺，外部覆盖着一块近60万平方英尺的LED屏幕。
Inside, enveloping the 17,500 seats, is another vast, ultra-high-resolution screen.
在场馆内部，环绕着17 500个座位的是另一块巨大的超高分辨率屏幕。
This pleasuredome offers an experience unlike any other.
这个娱乐场馆提供了一种无与伦比的体验。
It also raises questions about the future of live entertainment.
也引发了人们对未来现场娱乐的疑问。
The high-tech arena was opened in September by U2, who remain in residence until March.
这个高科技场馆在去年9月份由U2乐队开场，U2将一直待到今年3月份。
The Irish band has a history of innovative concert design as well as corporate ventures, including a long partnership with Apple.
这支爱尔兰乐队有过许多演唱会创新设计和企业经营项目，包括与苹果的长期合作伙伴关系。
Perhaps just as important, U2 is loved by middle-aged rock fans, who form the bulk of concertgoers in America and might shell out for a ticket.
同样重要的是，U2受到中年摇滚乐迷的喜爱，这些乐迷是美国演唱会观众的主体，有可能会花钱买票。
(Prices start at $140 and go up to $1,500.)
(门票起价为140美元，最高可达1500美元。)
A celebration of “Achtung Baby”, an album released in 1991, U2’s show is an overwhelming phantasmagoria.
为了庆祝1991年发行的专辑《小心宝贝》，U2在演唱会上呈现了无比震撼的奇幻场景。
The band plays on a stage shaped like a turntable while work by artists including Es Devlin and John Gerrard appears on the vaulting screen.
乐队在一个转盘形状的舞台上演奏，同时埃斯·德夫林和约翰·杰拉德等艺术家的作品出现在圆拱形的屏幕上。
During “Even Better Than the Real Thing”, there are animations of slot machines and Elvis kitsch.
在演唱《比真的更好》时，屏幕上出现了老虎机和猫王的动画。
For “Where the Streets Have No Name”, the crowd is transported into the blinding daylight of the high desert.
演唱《街道无名之地》时，观众又置身于高地沙漠的刺眼日光中。
During “With Or Without You” the ceiling teems with images of endangered local species such as the leaf-nosed bat.
演唱《有你或没有你》时，天花板上满是当地濒危物种的图片，比如叶鼻蝙蝠。
“It’s a show that’s about the venue that it’s in,” says Willie Williams, U2’s longtime production designer.
“这场演唱会的重点就是其所在的场馆。”U2的长期制作设计师威利·威廉姆斯说，
“It’s about us all going to experience the venue.”
“这就是为了让大家都来体验这个场馆。”
From one angle, the Sphere represents a major development in an existing trend of the arts becoming more immersive.
从一个角度来看，球体馆是艺术现有趋势的一个重大发展，即越来越强调沉浸性。
Exhibitions that turn the paintings of Monet or Van Gogh into interactive, room-encompassing installations have proliferated in recent years, as have immersive theatre productions.
近年来，将莫奈或梵高的画作转化为互动的、环绕整个房间的装置作品的展览激增，沉浸式戏剧也越来越多。
Virtual-reality technology has improved significantly.
虚拟现实技术已经有了显著的进步。
From another angle, it is part of the evolution of the modern rock concert, which since the 1960s has combined light and sound to transport fans into another dimension.
从另一个角度来看，这是现代摇滚演唱会一个发展演变，自20世纪60年代以来，摇滚演唱会就用声光电，将粉丝带入另一个奇境。
At a show your correspondent attended at the Sphere in October, there were moments when the experience was transcendent.
笔者在去年10月在球体馆观看了一场演出，有几个时刻让笔者有了如临仙境的体验。
(There is a quiet room, filled with bean bags, for the over-stimulated.)
(场馆中有一个安静的房间，里面摆满了懒人沙发，供过于兴奋而感到疲惫的人使用。)
Yet viewers still took their eyes off the big screen to reach for the smaller ones in their pockets.
然而，观众们仍然会把目光从大屏幕上移开，把手伸向口袋，去拿小屏幕的手机。
At times the band seemed like an expensive soundtrack to the bright lights.
有时，乐队看起来像给明亮灯光伴奏的昂贵配乐。
Is this the future of the concert?
这就是演唱会的未来吗？
In the short term, no.
短期内，答案是否定的。
The sheer cost of the Sphere—$2.3bn—means that the model cannot be easily reproduced.
球体馆的高昂成本--23亿美元--意味着这种模式不容易复制。
Its ostentation is also a barrier: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, recently vetoed a sister Sphere in the city, calling it “bulky, unduly dominant and incongruous”.
它的过于招摇也是一个问题：伦敦市长萨迪克·汗最近否决了在伦敦也修建一个球体馆的提议，称其“太庞大，过于突出，与城市不协调”。
Sphere Entertainment Company, the owner, hopes to build other iterations and is in “serious” talks for an arena in Abu Dhabi.
球体馆的所有者“球体娱乐公司”希望能建造其他类似场馆，并在“认真地”洽谈关于在阿布扎比建一个球体馆的事宜。
But negotiations regarding Spheres in Saudi Arabia and South Korea have stalled.
但在沙特阿拉伯和韩国建球体馆的谈判已陷入僵局。
Some artists and promoters are said to be wary of developing shows that cannot be taken on tour to other, standard arenas and of letting the venue outshine the music.
据说，一些艺术家和演唱会承办方持谨慎态度，担心为球体馆打造的舞台不能在巡演时被搬上其他标准舞台，以及场馆可能会喧宾夺主。
For now, at least, what happens in Vegas is staying there.
至少现在，发生在拉斯维加斯的事情还停留在拉斯维加斯。
The Sphere does mark a bullish bet on the future of live music, however.
但球体馆确实标志着对现场音乐的前景看好。
The biggest acts have long had to make do with sports stadiums with dodgy acoustics, but this is a capacious, purpose-built venue.
长期以来，最大型的表演不得不在音响效果不好的体育场里凑合着演，但球体馆是一个宽敞的、专门建造的场地。
There seems to be plenty of demand for lavish productions by the biggest hitmakers: witness the billions of dollars in revenue made by Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” and Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tours.
对于最热门的音乐人的豪华制作似乎有大量需求：碧昂斯的“文艺复兴”演唱会和泰勒·斯威夫特的“时代”巡演创造了数十亿美元的票房。
According to Luminate, an analytics firm, in 2023 consumers spent 91% more on live music events than the year before and attended 32% more concerts.
根据分析公司Luminate的数据，2023年消费者在现场音乐活动上的支出比前一年增加了91%，参加演唱会的场数增加了32%。
Goldman Sachs predicts the market for live music will grow by 5% this year to reach nearly $40bn annually by 2030.
高盛预测，现场音乐市场今年将增长5%，到2030年将达到每年近400亿美元营收。
This growth is not just driven by pent-up demand from the pandemic.
这一增长不仅仅是由被疫情压抑的需求所推动的。
Youngsters, who prefer to spend their money on experiences than on items, consider concerts good value, even when they are pricey.
年轻人更喜欢把钱花在体验上，而不是买东西上，他们认为演唱会很有价值，即使价格不菲。
“People still want to have that experience of liveness,” says Steve Waksman, a concert historian, regardless of whether, as at the Sphere, it is “mediated” through screens.
音乐会历史学家史蒂夫·瓦克斯曼表示：“人们仍然希望拥有现场的体验”，无论这个现场是否像在球体馆一样经历了屏幕的“中转”。
To some, the Sphere may be more bewildering than beautiful, but one thing is clear: the future of concerts is as rosy as Bono’s trademark glasses.
对一些人来说，球体馆可能更令他们感到困惑而不是让他们觉得美丽，但有一点是明确的：演唱会的未来就像U2乐队主唱波诺的标志性眼睛一样是玫瑰色的。
