John Adams On Nixon In China

Abstract Nixon in China by John Adams and the poet Alice Goodman was given its premiere by the Houston Grand Opera on 22 October 1987 and was later seen in its original staging in New York, Washington, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Paris, Adelaide, and Frankfurt. A televised version was shown over the PBS network in 1988. The original productions were directed by Peter Sellars, who worked closely with Adams and Goodman on the concept and many details of the work. The opera has been revived several times in the United States and in Europe. Dubbed “headline opera” by the critics, Nixon in China is based on a historical event still fresh in the memory of its audience: President Nixon’s official visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, which established diplomatic relations between the two countries, nonexistent since the victory of the Communist revolution in 1949. The opera depicts episodes from the eight-day visit as reported in the press and seen on television: Nixon’s plane landing in Beijing, Nixon’s “historic handshake” on the airport runway with Chinese premier Chou En-lai, the meeting between Nixon and Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party, the banquet at the Great Hall of the People, a visit by Pat Nixon, the First Lady, to a model pig farm, the Evergreen People’s Commune. In the original production the principal characters Nixon (baritone), his wife, Pat (soprano), Henry Kissinger (bass), Chairman Mao (tenor), Mao’s wife, Chiang Ch’ing (soprano), and Premier Chou (baritone) were made up to look as much as possible like the historical figures they portrayed, several of whom were still alive at the time of the premiere. In the opera, plot is at a minimum: the characters interact in stylized exchanges and reminisce singly or in pairs about their personal histories and history in general.