Nixon in China
Back in the late 1980s, I watched the Houston Grand Opera's production of John Adams' opera "Nixon in China" on public television. I was blown away, not just by the performances, but by the music, which is absolutely gorgeous.

Unfortunately, we may never get to see that performance again. Why, I'm not sure. It is apparently not available, period.

But the recording is still one of my favorites. I have it on audiocassette from all those years ago. It's on my iPod too.

enlightening
Adams' "Nixon In China" does what real art is supposed to do: it focuses attention on matters and details we'd overlooked and refines our maps of reality. The portrayal of the Nixons comes across as poignant and surprisingly plausible. The libretto takes skillful advantage of the impressions we'd previously formed of the pair through the press. And the music is of course alternately adrenal and hypnotic.

Gray Temple (the Rev. Canon)

fantastic libretto explaining a great historical moment
I love the opera, although the beginning is more lyrical than the end.

When Nixon arrived in Beijing, he did not even know if he would meet Mao. Then, when the Spirit of 76 sets down and Chou meets him, Nixon's excitement over his presence on the stage of world history takes over. He explodes into song: "It's primetime in the USA. It's yesterday night. It's yesterday night." At his hotel, worry returns. Nixon's paranoid self takes over; no one appreciates what he does. But then, Mao calls. Right on his arrival he is to meet Mao.

Mao and Nixon hit it off. Nixon wants to talk politics; Mao prefers philosophy. Each anticipates the moves of the other. They praise each other's books. Mao gets blunt. China is sick of poverty. He "wants to hear the sound of industry blown on the wind." Dams, textile factories, construction cranes. Sometimes, Mao says, the left-wingers are fascist. The gang of four, you mean? says Nixon. No. Mao is speaking generally; he just likes right-wingers. Mao's song, oddly predicting world history after the opera is written, is entitled "Founders Come First, Then Profiteers."

Then Nixon and Chou meet at the Great Hall of the People for the banquet. Chou begins his toast, one of the more lyrical moments of the opera. "From Vision to Inheritance" -- the legacy of the Maoists! We have united the land and brought peace to our land, and we are at peace with the world. Now, we wish to join hands with the Americans and build a rich powerful China. Then the drinking begins! An ecstasis! This drinking song is better than the ones in Wozzeck or Carmina Burana.

And that is just Act 1.

Act 2 brings us modern housewife Pat Nixon and flamboyent Chiang Ching. Mrs. Nixon is taken by the Chinese peasantry. She gets to see the pigs. She reminisces about her farm life. She sees rural China as a beautiful place for a picnic. She understands that this is the beginning of peace, that the trip is a massive success. Chiang Ching stages her competing Red Ballet. The martial music from the overture returns. Is the play history or reality?

Finally, Act 3 brings us 'the morning after.' History is finished with our men and women leaders of America and China. They are passing from the world stage. They have lived for that moment. Romantic moments there have been -- cooking burgers for pilots in the South Pacific, life in the Yenan caves, making it in a Washington apartment on a military paycheck, the Long March, being strafed by a zero in the midst of a rain storm, making revolution.

With Nixon in China, you get great music, great biography and great history. Our entire present era of world prosperity is a result of the events surrounding Nixon's visit to China, opening up the Generation of Peace about which he spoke. Mao's vision of a modern China, where Confucious is dead and where the sounds of industry are borne on the winds. has come true.

An mythmaking moment turned in to Great Opera, with a killer academic, well-researched libretto. A world-uniting opera with Chiang Ching's 'opera within an opera.' (And give that third act some time to grow on you.)
Great art work on the jewel box.

The Inner Psychological and Philosopical Questions of Power
Even though I am quite familiar with a lot of "classical" orchestral works and some chamber music, I am just beginning to explore the world of opera. So far, the only other operas I have to compare are Monteverdi's "Orfeo" and Mozart's "Magic Flute".

The composer, John C. Adams, uses the "minimalist" approach to which I am also somewhat unfamiliar. The only minimalist works I've heard proir to "Nixon in China" are Gorecki's beautiful and sad, "Symphony of Sorrow" and "The Photographer" by Philip Glass.

This opera seems to sound a lot like what little of the music of Philip Glass I have heard. It also sounds a bit like Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" at times. There are really no "songs" that one can sieze, as the entire 2 1/2 hours has the same unending feel to it.

I would say that the music style makes "Nixon in China" a piece of moods and feelings rather than "beautiful melodies". These moods and feelings are dependent on the well-crafted liberetto (collection of lyrics) and expressive singing. At times, the opera becomes very intense and urgent. In this sense, "Nixon in China" is more akin to "Orfeo" than "The Magic Flute".

Through it all, "Nixon in China" is a very intriguing opera. It is a truly modern work, unlike anything by Beethoven through Stravinsky or Schoenberg. The setting and subject matter are also something new: not mythological or based on some great novel or play; but rather a diplomatic mission between two of the most important nations on the geo-political stage in our modern age: China and the USA.

The inner psychological and philosopical questions of power are also explored through the complex characterizations of Nixon, Mao, Kissenger and Cho En-lai. As a student of music, psychology and history; I found the very idea of "Nixon in China" quite interesting.

An Opera about Nixon
John Adams never was any better than on this fantastic opera. It is absolutely spectacular. I even went to see it played in Paris I think 15 years ago. He manages to integrate his minimalist approach into this masterpiece of modern music.