Much has changed since “Nixon in China” debuted at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987, sparking controversy and creating a sensation that landed the daring show on newsmagazine covers and generated international attention.
In the 21 years since, President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, have died, and a whole generation has come of age that was not even born when he made his landmark trip to communist China in 1972.
In addition, the work has come to be seen as the most important and influential opera of the last quarter of the 20th century, and its then-upstart composer, John Adams, is now regarded as one of the leading musical figures of our time.
But, strangely, there had not been a significant new staging of “Nixon in China” since its premiere. Every major staging, including one in London in 2000, had been a revival of the original, which was conceived by celebrated director Peter Sellars.
This odd absence of an updated take on the work provided exactly the opportunity the always-adventurous Opera Theatre of St. Louis was looking for in 2002, and it decided to take on the challenge.
To lead the artistic team, it chose James Robinson, a nationally respected stage director. As it turns out, he is stepping down in June as artistic director of Opera Colorado to take the same position with the St. Louis company.
Almost immediately, five other companies agreed to be co-producers, including the Chicago Opera Theater, Houston Grand Opera and Opera Colorado, which is presenting four performances beginning Saturday.
The Denver company is the last, at least for now, to present the production, which opened in St. Louis in 2004 and has been a critical and box-office hit nationwide.
“In lots of different cities where you wouldn’t expect it to be successful, it sells out, because it’s one of those pieces that everyone has heard about and everybody is dying to see, and it has this sort of mythical reputation,” Robinson said.
The big question, of course, was what tack to take with this new production, considering the 1987 original has attained a kind of iconic status. It was experienced live by thousands of people and is familiar to many more through television broadcasts and much-reproduced photos.
“So, you have to keep that in your head and think, ‘Well, is it something that we’re going to pay homage to or are we going to break from that?” said set designer Allen Moyer, a longtime Robinson collaborator.
The team opted for the second choice, with Moyer devising a central scenic motif consisting of 12 television sets, showing a mosaic-like montage of actual footage of Nixon’s visit that serves as an ever-changing visual backdrop for the action.
Besides news footage taken during the event, video and projection designer Wendall Harrington wove in bits of what were essentially home movies shot by members of Nixon’s entourage, who were issued cameras. In a stroke of good fortune, this material was declassified and made available just months before the production debuted.
“The idea has never been that we want people to come to see this show with 12 television sets and watch TV all night,” Robinson said. “The televisions are a kind of way of getting us into the piece.”
Not only do they symbolize American culture, they also reflect the integral role television played in how the meeting between Nixon and Mao Tse-tung was presented and perceived.
“It was the first globally televised event of that nature,” Robinson said. “I think a lot of people remember seeing bits and pieces of it from television, so we have this shared memory of it.”
At the same time he wanted to touch on that collective recall he also sought to distance the production from the ever-more-distant reality of the Chinese trip — something the original could not do since the opera arrived just 15 years after the actual event.
“I think what Jim has done is that he is looking at it through the lens of today,” said conductor Marin Alsop, “so that it sort of has a nostalgia for the ’70s that we experience today, but of course wouldn’t have in the ’80s. It was too close. So, it’s just a different kind of experience.”
Rhyme and reason
This kind of semi-abstract approach makes sense, because the three-act opera does not unfold in traditional storylike fashion and blurs into almost being a kind of oratorio.
Instead, the stylized work makes use of a libretto by Alice Goodman written in rhymed, metered couplets, with an almost surrealistic third act, a series of fragmented conversations and internal monologues.
“There’s a kind of frenzied, dreamlike quality to the whole piece that we really wanted to bring out, and that’s hard to do if you are in a completely naturalistic environment,” Robinson said.
This unconventional approach typifies all Adams’ major operas.
“What they are is intensely theatrical, but they are not dramatic,” the director said. “He heightens the theatricality of an event, but drama inherently needs that beginning, middle and end. It needs a thread of narrative to go with it.”
Because “Nixon in China” and his subsequent operas, “The Death of Klinghoffer” and “Dr. Atomic,” are based on well-known historical events, they involve virtually nothing in the way of suspense or plot twists.
“I don’t think anybody else really does that,” Robinson said, “and perhaps that’s why they are so successful. I’m hard-pressed to think of too many successful modern operas that follow a classic narrative and actually work, and I’m not exactly sure why that is.”
If “Nixon in China” is not a traditional drama, it nonetheless believably conveys the humanity of the characters, giving each surprisingly personal, introspective moments.
“I was a little intimidated by it because when you look at me, you don’t just automatically think of Pat Nixon, but there is makeup and hair, and I did do a lot of reading about her,” said soprano Maria Kanyova, an Opera Colorado veteran who is portraying the first lady.
“I thought it was really interesting to see her from the pictures, to see her from the video and then, in my own mind, think, “Hmmm, what was she really thinking during that time? What was their relationship really like?”
Besides Kanyova, other members of the original St. Louis production taking part in the Denver presentation include baritone Chenye Yuan (as Chou En-lai), who lived in China during 1970s and provided valuable advice during the staging.
Robinson reserved special praise for baritone Robert Orth, who is returning to the role of Nixon.
“It is perfection,” he said. “He is never a caricature. It is a flesh-and- blood, interesting person in what he brings to this role, and I just think he is one of the great performers.”
Alsop’s Denver exclusive
To conduct the St. Louis premiere, Robinson immediately thought of Alsop, the Colorado Symphony’s conductor laureate, who is a champion of Adams’ music and friend of the composer.
“I had known Marin here (in Denver), but we’d never worked together,” he said, “and I thought, well, this might be a really interesting project. The folks in St. Louis said, ‘What a great idea. Let’s get her.’ ”
Alsop’s crowded schedule has prevented her from leading the production anywhere else since, but she made a point of fitting in time for this Denver presentation.
“I’ve never worked with Opera Colorado (before), although I’ve seen many, many operas they’ve done,” she said. “It’s a good company. And, of course, my main motivation is to work with the orchestra that I love.”
Robinson said he is proud of this production of “Nixon in China” and happy it turned out to be his last one as Opera Colorado’s artistic director.
“I know there are some people who are a little bewildered by it, some people who are shocked that we are doing it,” he said. “But it is a great piece, and we have the resources to do it and we should do it. It’s such a worthy piece.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
Nixon forged relations with China
Although President Nixon (with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, above) is best remembered for his ignominious involvement in Watergate, his most significant accomplishment arguably was establishing relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Thousands of well-wishers gathered on the White House lawn Feb. 17, 1972, as he left for the trip to China, during which he would meet communist leader Mao Tse-tung, with millions of people following the events on television.
The visit was a milestone in Cold War history, and reverberations of the event continue to be felt as China becomes an ever-larger military and economic world power.
“Nixon in China”
Opera Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Opera Colorado’s production of John Adams’ groundbreaking opera, which debuted in 1987. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 10 and June 13 and 2 p.m. June 15. 3 hours. $28-$157. 303-357-2787 or .
