In the Terrace Theater in Long Beach they are getting ready to welcome the arrival of the President of the United States. They are also getting ready to greet the Premier of China. The president's wife. The Secretary of State. And an orchestra.
That should give you the clue. John Adams' Pulitzer controversial first opera
Long Beach Opera (LBO), never a company afraid of a challenge, is presenting “Nixon in China,” John Adams' Pulitzer controversial first opera in a new production as part of its 2010 Made in America season. It's been 20 years since the work was last seen locally, in a production at the Los Angeles Opera. The work premiered in Houston in 1987 and then went to Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles and a few European cities. It was the first major opera to deal with our times (just 15 years in the past at its premier) but not by any means the last. Adams has since written the highly controversial “Death of Klinghoffer” and "Dr. Atomic.”
In the past few years the work has been rediscovered, including a production in Vancouver last Saturday and this Saturday's LBO production. Andreas Mitisek, artistic and general director of Long Beach Opera, directed a production himself last year in Verona. It was his second visit to the opera. He had conducted it in 1997 in Vienna. The LBO production is designed by Wilhelm Holzbauer using designs he originated for the Vienna production and which were used for the Verona production as well. It is directed by Peter Pawlik, with choreography by Jenny Weston and lighting by Dan Weingarten. Long Beach Ballet is performing in the big second-act “Red Detachment of Women” ballet.
“This is a very big piece,” Mitisek said during a recent phone conversation. “It is one of the biggest in scope we have ever done. It has 111 people in the cast, including more than forty in the ballet. We are doing it in the Terrace Theater because it needs that space to function. We have an airplane landing on stage after all.”
“Nixon in China” tells the story of very recent history. It was only fifteen years earlier (and still today only 38 years ago) that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger had “opened” China by a spectacular visit to the country, with meetings with Mao Tse-Tung and Chao En-Lai. Pat Nixon and Chiang Ch'ing (Madame Mao) also have seminal roles in the story. The opera, in a post-minimalist style, was savaged by the New York Times critic but has been widely praised since then as as artistic view of a seminal moment in American history and an insightful look at the inner monologue of several of the world's most important men (and women).
“The original production was John Adams first opera and his music was not familiar to audiences,” Mitisek said. “Since then he has become one of America's best-known composers. John is much more than just a minimalist. Philip Glass uses a minimalist style. John's is more than minimalist. There is great beauty in his themes. It is ever changing and he writes beautifully for his characters. There are moments that are so touching, moments that are revealing and as deep and operatic as anything in the repertory.”
The events in “Nixon in China” were very much current history when the opera first was produced, but they are now a generation, and two wars, ago. That has changed how the opera is seen. “The further we go way from the people involved and the historical situation the more it becomes metaphor,” Mitisek said. “Like the historic characters in Shakespeare, we see them as representing more than just their personal passions and feelings. An important part of the story is 'How do nations meet and communicate?'The further we get from it the better the story is.”
The cast includes Michael Chioldi as Richard Nixon, Suzan Hanson as Pat Nixon, John Duykers as Mao Tse-Tung (he created the role in the world premier,) Roberto Gomez as Cho En lai, Kyle Albertson as Henry Kissinger, Ani Maldjian as Chiang Ch'ing, and Ariel Pisturino, Leslie Anne Cook and Peabody Southwell as three of Mao's secretaries.
With pardonable pride Mitisek said “I think this is going to be the biggest artistic event in Southern California this year.”
“Nixon in China is playing tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 28 at 4 p.m. Tickets: $45-$95.
Details: (562) 432-5934 or visit www.longbeachopera.org
Venue: Terrace Theater
Address: 300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach
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