“Nixon in China”, the first politico-historical opera of the 20th century, is carried by exceptional artists and a staging that will stand out. Striking.
The show opens with a game of table tennis. Two masked players, one as an eagle, the other as a dragon, compete in slow motion. The first is all dressed in blue, the second in red. The tone is set. Nixon in China by John Adams, revisited by Valentina Carrasco and under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, made a very remarkable entrance at the Paris Opera. In 1972, US President Richard Nixon traveled to China to meet Mao Zedong (or Tse-tung) at the invitation of Beijing. We were then talking about “ping pong diplomacy”. Where does the expression come from? A year earlier, in Nagoya, Japan, during the World Table Tennis Championships, table tennis players from the Chinese and American teams had struck up a friendship despite the ban on all contact between them. The American composer and conductor John Adams made this event his first opera, which is also considered the first politico-historical opera of the 20th century.
eagle and dragon
Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco was inspired by this “ping pong diplomacy” to develop an original scenography, marked by tables and tennis balls. The decor becomes a character and participates in the summit meeting between Nixon and Mao, between the eagle and the dragon, between two civilisations. In addition, lights, staging, video editing take part in the writing to make certain scenes readable and understandable, sometimes a posteriori like that of the violinist mistreated by the Red Army. The sets are also sometimes breathtaking, such as this eagle-plane descending from the sky or this luminous red dragon. Valentina Carrasco knew how to find the right tone not to stick to historical events but on the contrary to go towards a more poetic, freer composition. “Being neither Chinese nor American, and seizing a work which is a classic of the repertoire, it is my duty to propose a new reading”she explains.
Inspiration and not communication
The stay of the presidential couple in Beijing is marked both by optimism and non-communication, even incomprehension. The cast is excellent. The baritone Thomas Hampson and the soprano Renée Fleming, in Richard and Pat Nixon, are impressive in their accuracy, even in the gestures of the former tenants of the White House. What about John Matthew Myers who embodies an aging Mao, and still surrounded by women? The tenor is very convincing, brilliantly playing on the fragilities and weaknesses of the Grand Helmsman. The same with Kathleen Kim in Chiang Ch’ing, overexcited wife and guardian of communist orthodoxy. The passage, all of violence and anger, where the soprano sings “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung” is one of the highlights of the work.
These artists, in addition to the disturbing baritone Xiaomeng Zhang, have captured the soul of Alice Goodman’s text. The librettist has highlighted the non-communication of the protagonists, sometimes to the point of absurdity. In the last act especially, everyone is sucked into their past. There is no dialogue but talkative evocations. Nixon in China is carried by exceptional artists and a staging that will mark.
“Nixon in China”, directed by Valentina Carrasco, until April 16 at the Opéra Bastille.