Nixon in China (Adams) - Part 2 of 17
Houston Grand Opera, 1987 Music by John Adams Libretto by Alice Goodman Directed by Peter Sellars Choreographed by Mark Morris Conducted by John DeMain Introduced by Walter Cronkite Richard Nixon.......James Maddalena Pat Nixon......................Carolann Page Chou En-lai....................Sanford Slvan Mao Tse-tung.................John Duykers Henry Kissinger....Thomas Hammons Chiang Ch'ing......Trudy Ellen Craney Mao's Secretaries...............Mari Opatz Stephanie Friedman Marion Dry Act One The opera begins at Beijing Airport. A detachment of Chinese troops marches on to the stage and sings a 1930s Red Army song, The Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention. As the soldiers wait, an airplane taxis and lands on the stage - the Nixons and Henry Kissinger disembark and are greeted by Chou Enlai. As Nixon is introduced to various Chinese officials by Chou, he sings of his hopes and fears for his historic visit. Later, Richard Nixon and Kissinger visit Mao's study along with Chou. While Nixon attempts to set out his stall with a simple and simplistic vision of peace between America and China, Mao wishes to discuss philosophy with Nixon and speaks in riddles. The visit is not entirely a success, and the elderly Mao is soon worn out. Chou departs with Nixon and Kissinger. On the first night of the visit, a great feast for the American delegation is held in the Great Hall of the People. The Nixons and Chou gradually relax in one another's company as good food and strong drink takes its effect. Chou rises to make a toast to the American delegation, full of fulsome praise and wishes for peaceful co-existence. Nixon responds in kind, congratulating the Chinese for their hospitality and recanting his previous opposition to China. The party continues with mutual compliments and toasting. Act Two Pat Nixon is being escorted to various showcases of contemporary Chinese life - a glass factory, a health centre, pig farm and a primary school. However, the language of Pat's Chinese guides is stilted and formal - they hint darkly of the repressive side of Chinese life that lies underneath the façade shown to foreign dignitaries. Pat sings an aria of her own hopes for the future, a peaceful future of modesty and good neighbourliness, a future based on the values of the American heartland. Later that night, the Nixons attend the Chinese opera, to see a piece written by Madam Mao called The Red Detachment of Women. The piece is a simplistic display of politicised music-theater, with the oppressed peasants of a tropical island saved from their brutal landlord by heroic women of the Red Army. However, somehow the main characters are drawn into the opera, each revealing their true nature, with Pat Nixon defending the weak, Kissinger siding with the brutal landlord and Madam Mao's desire to save the peasants at all costs leading her to become more brutal than the landlord was in the first place. Eventually, a riot develops on stage with Chou and Madam Mao on opposite sides - the opera has become a rerun of the Cultural Revolution. Act Three On the Americans' final night in Beijing, it has become apparent to all that there will be no great breakthrough the Shanghai Communique is no more than words, a face-saving formula for the world's press to buy into. The main characters look back over their lives the Maos and the Nixons look back to the struggles of their early years together, Richard Nixon recalls his younger days as a sailor. Only Chou looks deeper, asking "how much of what we did was good?", before casting doubts aside and wearily carrying on with his work.
Comments
-
M
-
I know the subject matter will strike many today as an odd choice - in fact it seemed a very odd choice to audiences at the time when this opera was first staged in the late 80s. But very quickly people began to appreciate that Alice Goodman and John Adams weren't trying to reify Nixon and Kissinger nor to create a hagiography - they were neither of them politically very likely to have attempted to do such a thing. This was an attempt at a subtle, journalistic, farily non-commital portrayal of what was a momentous or even outrageous political stunt, leaving the audience to ponder the deeper issues and implications. I think this is their crowning achievement operatically and nothing they did together since was as powerful. The recent flop of Adams' opera about Oppenheimer and the a-bomb may have been due to lack of a librettist of Goodman's calibre. In the opera "biz" Nixon in China is a landmark and a high point in the late 20th Century and it's been restaged in the USA and UK several times and already has two commercial CD recordings. The high points are: the opening chorus; Nixon's aria "News News News"; the entry of the Chairman with his trio of lackeys mouthing every word he utters a beat after he does (Adams uses trios of mouthpieces, a mini-chorus of sorts, in later works too); Pat Nixon's aria "This is Prophetic"; and Lady Mao's high-soprano aria "I am the wife of Mao Tse Tung". In this particular clip at [5:03] I like how the audience chuckles as Nixon sings "Smoooo-ther than usual" using just a hint of the melodic line from the US national anthem - a lovely gentle touch from the composer that says in just a few bars so many things about Nixon and his vanity and desire for this to be remembered as one of his great moments in history, and about the US politics and nationalism of the time.
-
The Chinese word was written wrongly
-
It is even dumber than myself...That is to say...!
-
To have worse hobbys at my age! I detest that stupid I-Pad keyboard grrrrrrrrr!!!
-
You use to have worker hobbys at my age!
-
Watching that brilliantly structured stuff!😃
-
As you could guess I am just a 21 year old whose I.Q. Is below everything! I feel so good about myself listening and watchîg the brillantly structured Nixon in China as a hobby! you us allé got Word hobbys at my age! Lol soooo posh! I am too humorous to be posh😄
-
Fascination/repulsion, fuck it I'm all the men at once loooooooooooooool
-
They had much nicer coats back in the 80s and the 70s as well. Today, looks like some amateur taylor cutted the coats to make them look like blazers.
-
I saw the Houston Opera perform this on PBS. It was so good, especially Maddalena.
-
Tony Black, Nixon has been dead for some time now.
-
Watergate coverup was bad, but Nixon did open China up to relations with the US, a farsighted decision. And he had a good civil rights record. The Watergate cover up doesn't take away from those achievements. Except to those who still have Nixon Derangement Syndrome.
-
Nixon and Kissinger are complete shit bags, but this makes em look good, -brilliant opera
-
Please find another source for this because I promise you this opera sounds absolutely beautiful performed at its peak. I have an Optical Disk of it and it's amazing.
-
Actually, I have a Korean-language audio recording of Evita. I'd really like to see the associated video for it.
-
I guess no opera producer wants to be accused of racism by staging "blackfaces"
-
This is the best part of the production. It was and never quite was, it. A specialty of post-modernity.
-
I know. I remember the movie. I just find Mao more suitable to the comparison. My favorite part is the author in the audience with the german helmet.
-
I wasn't comparing him to Hitler lol. Have you ever seen the Mel Brooks movie "The Producers?" In the movie, a broke playwright and a tax expert decide to overfund an awful Broadway play, not use all of the funds on the play, and then pocket the rest of the money. The play they find is a play by a paranoid ex-Nazi called Springtime for Hitler in which he tries to portray the real Hitler, the "nice guy." It's hilarious, see it if you haven't, make sure it's the one with Gene Wilder though.
10m 1sLenght
201Rating