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.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• john
• adams
• alice
• goodman
• peter
• sellars
• mark
• morris
• nixon
• in
• china
• modern
• opera
• minimalism
• minimalist
• houston
• grand
• richard
• pat
• mao
• zedong
• chou
• en-lai
• henry
• kissinger
• walter
• cronkite

[Bububaps]

This makes me want to become a pilot, learn how to fly (preferably learn first before becoming a pilot) get some big ass bomber with a beast of a roar for an engine, fit it with some crazy ass subwoofers blurting this out and go bomb the crap out of some non communism country. My own will do, I just want to blow things up! Screw ride of the valkeries

[JeeRant]

@Bububaps Right on. Take me with you.

[MrNoelJMIS]

I know it's pointless to bring this up because the performance was done in the 80s when less care was taken in this area...but it is always so weird to see a bunch of white people with "chinese" hairstyles...much harder to take it seriously than when I listen to it and imagine a real landing in China! I wish they could do a movie version with authentic casting! I love the singing though- such beautiful music and superb singing!

[JeeRant]

It's a byproduct of the telecast. What works in the theater - when the audience is sitting at some distance from the stage - doesn't always work for television.

It's funny, though, how opera companies will go to great pains to hire an all-black cast for 'Porgy and Bess', while you almost never see all-Asian casts for, say, 'Turandot' or 'Madama Butterfly'. I suppose some ethnicities are easier to fake than others.

As for a movie version of 'Nixon in China'...now THAT would be something.

[UET2]

Nixon's entrance is stunning -- the orchestration, the camera angles, the symbolic still shot of the handshake with Chou En-lai -- a breathtaking operatic moment...

[eedobee]

@MrNoelJMIS It's a little blackface....

[eedobee]

@JeeRant I bet in 10 years wearing Asian makeup and facial props will be considered vulgar and racist.

[VeritasInVideo]

@JeeRant You two fools. The civilians are innocent. Bomb the parliaments, not the people.

[crownprincetaffe]

you could hardly tell that from this opera though..love Chou's costume btw and Mao was an oppertunistic jerk: Nixon shouldn't have pandered to such a monster who made HItler look moderate.

[crownprincetaffe]

pity Chou let himself become Mao's wipping post for most of his career and didn't stand up to Mao enough during his extremely long reign of terror which started in 1931-34 then continued in 1942-43 and then ended in 1949-76 (three differen phases of terror) although Chou did attempt to stand up to Mao in 1956-57 along with other communists but Mao denounced him as a "quasi-rightist" and almost had him shot and sacked him as minister for foreign affairs.

[67rml]

Nixon did land in China at night. We saw it live on TV. This isn't that far off.

[thegoodgeneral]

I love that the piano & glockenspiel give the performers their cues.

[deepfugue]

@xx9933yyzz Welcome to the modern age!

[pageturner95]

Thumbs up if you want to listen to the plane landing music while on a flight taking off/landing :)