Nixon in China: the opera based on a historic summit premieres on Hungarian stage for the 1st time
On 22 September 2024, the Eiffel Art Studios of the Hungarian State Opera presents Nixon in China by John Adams. The opera show taking place at several locations simultaneously and featuring ballet elements stars Károly Szemerédy, Klára Kolonits, Zoltán Nyári, and Rita Rácz. The most influential contemporary American opera of recent decades is directed by András Almási-Tóth, the ensembles of the OPERA are conducted by Gergely Vajda. Beginning with 29 September, the production will also be available on OperaVision for six months.
“The week that changed the world.” After 25 years of diplomatic seclusion, the news of the 1972 Sino-American summit in Beijing exploded like a bombshell during the Cold War. Politics and the press reporting on the event in detail started creating myths around the negotiations between Richard Nixon and Mao Tse-tung as early as the time of the visit whose consequences still affect our times.
The opera by John Adams, which is both minimalist and grandiose at the same time, has been in the repertoire of operas around the world since its Houston premiere in 1987. In the composer’s unique music, the symphonic sound is also complemented by a synthesizer and 5 saxophones, and influences by Philip Glass, Johann Strauss II, Wagner, and Stravinsky can be traced beside those of jazz elements reminiscent of big bands. As conductor Gergely Vajda puts it: “I find it fascinating how a story lasting several hours can be built from short and catchy pop music elements, and at the same time we see and hear live, flesh-and-blood characters as well as figures from news who lack almost any dramatic character development. This opera is like the musical equivalent of Andy Warhol’s infamous artwork Campbell’s Soup Cans.
The pop-art pioneer is also evoked in the visuals of artistic director András Almási-Tóth’s production. Whether it is the unusual and creative use of the spaces of the Eiffel Art Studios (set, lighting, and video designer: Sebastian Hannak), spectacular designer clothes (costume designer: Richárd Márton), projections (films by Zsombor Czeglédi), crowd scenes and ballet sequences (choreographer: Eszter Lázár), they are all part of a grandiose opera show.
The director of the opera believes that, like all important works, Nixon in China is about more than the basic story. The revaluation of events, the objective facts and their subjective assessment and experience are also important elements of the work, while it also presents a positive example of the meeting of two worlds: “two nations – unknown, incomprehensible, and opposite to each other – shake hands, because you must and you can co-exist even if your view on the world is completely different”.
The Hungarian premiere features an internationally acclaimed cast including Károly Szemerédy as Richard Nixon, Klára Kolonits as Pat Nixon, Zoltán Nyári as Mao Tse-tung, Rita Rácz as Chiang Ch’ing, Azat Malik as Chou En-lai, and István Kovács as Henry Kissinger. Further cast includes Diána Ivett Kiss, Anna Csenge Fürjes, and Lusine Sahakyan, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus (chorus director: Gábor Csiki) are conducted by Gergely Vajda.
Following the premiere on 22 September 2024, the production can be seen on 29 September and 5 October at the Eiffel Art Studios of the Hungarian State Opera. The 29 September performance is streamed live on OperaVision, a project is supported European Union’s Creative Europe programme, and can be viewed free until 29 March 2025.
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