Post by erik on Aug 21, 2021 12:11:56 GMT -5
One of the great geopolitical moves of the 20th century was the subject for the opera by the American composer John Adams that is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
John Adams: NIXON IN CHINA
One of America’s greatest living composers since the mid-20th century has been John Adams. And although he is often thought of as a “minimalist” composer in the manner of similar fellow composers like Phillip Glass and Steve Reich, Adams has been known to surprise people. One such example is his three-act 1987 opera “Nixon In China”. The work, encouraged by theater and opera director Peter Sellars, had its roots in what may very well have been the most remarkable example of statecraft of the 20th century. Early in 1972, then-president Richard Nixon made a hugely significant trip over to China, a nation that had fallen under Stalin-influenced Communist control following World War II and which had become a closed society. Nixon, being among the most rabidly anti-Communist politicians of post-war America, saw this as an opportunity to split in half the alliance between China and the Soviet Union, especially given the fact that both nations were involved in border clashes throughout 1969 and 1970; he also believed he could leverage the two Communist giants into brokering a deal that could get America out of its messy involvement in Vietnam with its dignity intact. By the mid-1980’s, with Nixon having been out of office for a decade, resigning in disgrace over the Watergate scandal, Sellars had encouraged Adams to concoct a political opera along those lines. The end result, first staged at the Houston Grand Opera in Houston, Texas on October 22, 1987, received exceptionally mixed reviews at first (and, of course, was condemned by Nixon partisans in the media and the Republican Party itself); but the subject matter, plus the fact that parts of the opera, including the famous “Chairman Dances” (referring to Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-tung), were quickly becoming concert and recording fixtures, led it to be staged by opera companies throughout America and the rest of the world (including the Netherlands Opera). Incredibly, at the premiere of the opera at the Met in 2011, Nixon’s daughter Tricia was exceptionally receptive to the work, which came as a gigantic shock to more than a few people on either side of the political spectrum.
Richard Nixon: ROBERT ORTH
Pat Nixon: MARIA KANYOVA
Henry Kissinger: THOMAS HAMMONS
Mao Tse-tung: MARK HELLER
Madame Mao (Chiang Ch’ing): TRACY DAHL
Chou En-lai: CHEN YE-YUAN
1st Secretary (Nancy T’Ang): MELISSA MALDE
2nd Secretary: JULIE SIMSON
3rd Secretary: JENNIFER DEDOMINICI
Opera Colorado Chorus (Douglas Kinney Frost, chorus master)
Colorado Symphony Orchestra/MARIN ALSOP (Naxos)
John Adams: NIXON IN CHINA
One of America’s greatest living composers since the mid-20th century has been John Adams. And although he is often thought of as a “minimalist” composer in the manner of similar fellow composers like Phillip Glass and Steve Reich, Adams has been known to surprise people. One such example is his three-act 1987 opera “Nixon In China”. The work, encouraged by theater and opera director Peter Sellars, had its roots in what may very well have been the most remarkable example of statecraft of the 20th century. Early in 1972, then-president Richard Nixon made a hugely significant trip over to China, a nation that had fallen under Stalin-influenced Communist control following World War II and which had become a closed society. Nixon, being among the most rabidly anti-Communist politicians of post-war America, saw this as an opportunity to split in half the alliance between China and the Soviet Union, especially given the fact that both nations were involved in border clashes throughout 1969 and 1970; he also believed he could leverage the two Communist giants into brokering a deal that could get America out of its messy involvement in Vietnam with its dignity intact. By the mid-1980’s, with Nixon having been out of office for a decade, resigning in disgrace over the Watergate scandal, Sellars had encouraged Adams to concoct a political opera along those lines. The end result, first staged at the Houston Grand Opera in Houston, Texas on October 22, 1987, received exceptionally mixed reviews at first (and, of course, was condemned by Nixon partisans in the media and the Republican Party itself); but the subject matter, plus the fact that parts of the opera, including the famous “Chairman Dances” (referring to Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-tung), were quickly becoming concert and recording fixtures, led it to be staged by opera companies throughout America and the rest of the world (including the Netherlands Opera). Incredibly, at the premiere of the opera at the Met in 2011, Nixon’s daughter Tricia was exceptionally receptive to the work, which came as a gigantic shock to more than a few people on either side of the political spectrum.
Richard Nixon: ROBERT ORTH
Pat Nixon: MARIA KANYOVA
Henry Kissinger: THOMAS HAMMONS
Mao Tse-tung: MARK HELLER
Madame Mao (Chiang Ch’ing): TRACY DAHL
Chou En-lai: CHEN YE-YUAN
1st Secretary (Nancy T’Ang): MELISSA MALDE
2nd Secretary: JULIE SIMSON
3rd Secretary: JENNIFER DEDOMINICI
Opera Colorado Chorus (Douglas Kinney Frost, chorus master)
Colorado Symphony Orchestra/MARIN ALSOP (Naxos)