John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China will be given its Metropolitan Opera premiere this Wednesday, also marking Adams's Met conducting debut and what the New York Times calls "a tardy house debut" for director Peter Sellars. The Times looks at just what an achievement the opera was for a composer and a librettist, Alice Goodman, who had never undertaken anything like it before. The Times also looks at the state dinner thrown for Nixon in Beijing and recreated in New York. Adams and Sellars spoke with Time Out New York for an interview titled "Vote Nixon."
John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China will be given its Metropolitan Opera premiere this coming Wednesday, also marking the Met conducting debut of the composer and what the New York Times calls "a tardy house debut" for director Peter Sellars. Nonesuch Records will reissue the Grammy-winning original cast recording of Nixon in China in a newly redesigned and specially-priced three-CD set on Tuesday. To pre-order now and receive high-quality MP3s of the album on release day, visit the Nonesuch Store.
Adams and Sellars spoke with Time Out New York's Steve Smith about the opera and its place in history—their own included—in an extensive interview, titled "Vote Nixon," which you can read at newyork.timeout.com.
---
Nixon in China's near-25 year history is the subject of a feature article in the New York Times by Matthew Gurewitsch, titled "Still Resonating From the Great Wall." In the article, the writer looks at just what an achievement it was for a composer and a librettist, Alice Goodman, who had never undertaken anything like it before.
"Nixon’s audience with Mao, Pat Nixon’s excursions to factories and the Ming tombs: the synopsis of Nixon in China tracks history closely," writes Gurewitsch. "But the creators imparted an imaginative, even mythic dimension to their characters’ meditations."
The article includes insights from Adams, Goodman, and from cast members like James Maddalena, who originated the role of Richard Nixon and performs it in the Met production.
Gurewitsch also looks at the new essay Sellars has written for the Nonesuch reissue, which helps place their creation in the artistic context of its time and in relation to such predecessors as Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach.
You can read the complete article at nytimes.com.
---
Also in the Times, in the Dining & Wine section, writer Florence Fabricant recalls the Nixon visit to China that inspired the opera and, more precisely, the dinner given in his honor in Beijing, which is featured in Adams's opera. The dinner inspired restaurateur Michael Tong to offer the menu at his famed New York City establishment Shun Lee Palace back in 1972, an experience Tong will recreate Shun Lee West near Lincoln Center in celebration of the Met production. Find out more at nytimes.com.
---
Nixon in China was featured on Q2—the online new-music stream of New York's classical public radio station WQXR—as part of John Adams's Operatorios, the station's weeklong immersion in long-form works by the composer. The series concludes tonight with Adams's controversial 1990 opera The Death of Klinghoffer, also with a libretto by Goodman, which addresses the 1985 terrorist hijacking of the Achille Lauro ocean liner. Followings its 1991, Sellars–directed premiere, the New York Times said the work “transmutes contemporary history into operatic poetry.” Tune in at 7 PM EST tonight at wqxr.org.
---
For more on the Met production of Nixon in China, including the live high-definition transmission of the opera to movie theaters on February 12, visit metopera.org.
- Log in to post comments
