FULL NIXON IN CHINA Budapest 2024 Károly Szemerédy, Klára Kolonits, Zoltán Nyári, Rita Rácz
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Nixon in China
- Composer: Adams John
- Libretto: Alice Goodman Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Hungarian National Opera, Budapest, Hungary
- Recorded: September 29, 2024
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Károly Szemerédy, Klára Kolonits, Zoltán Nyári, Rita Rácz, Azat Malik, István Kovács, Diána Ivett Kiss, Anna Csenge Fürjes, Lusine Sahakyan
- Conductor: Gergely Vajda
- Orchestra: Hungarian State Opera Orchestra
- Chorus: Chorus of the Hungarian State Opera
- Stage Director: András Almási-Tóth
- Stage Designer: Sebastian Hannak
- Costume Designer: Richárd Márton
- Lighting Designer: Sebastian Hannak
Information about the Recording
- Published by: OperaVision
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, othersubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Nixon in China is an opera in three acts by John Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams’s first opera, it was inspired by U.S. president Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris. When Sellars approached Adams with the idea for the opera in 1983, Adams was initially reluctant, but eventually decided that the work could be a study in how myths come to be, and accepted the project. Goodman’s libretto was the result of considerable research into Nixon’s visit, though she disregarded most sources published after the 1972 trip.
To create the sounds he sought, Adams augmented the orchestra with a large saxophone section, additional percussion, and electronic synthesizer. Although sometimes described as minimalist, the score displays a variety of musical styles, embracing minimalism after the manner of Philip Glass alongside passages echoing 19th-century composers such as Wagner and Johann Strauss. With these ingredients, Adams mixes Stravinskian 20th-century neoclassicism, jazz references, and big band sounds reminiscent of Nixon’s youth in the 1930s. The combination of these elements varies frequently, to reflect changes in the onstage action.
Following the 1987 premiere, the opera received mixed reviews; some critics dismissed the work, predicting it would soon vanish. However, it has been presented on many occasions since, in both Europe and North America, and has been recorded at least five times. In 2011, the opera received its Metropolitan Opera debut, a production based on the original sets, and in the same year was given an abstract production in Toronto by the Canadian Opera Company. Recent critical opinion has tended to recognize the work as a significant and lasting contribution to American opera.
Quoted from Wikipedia