Whether we like it or not, American opera has been building up a veritable repertoire over the past thirty years, often influenced by current events.
By taking the direction of the Paris Opera, Alexandre Neef quickly spotted this blind spot in the history of the house.
So it was not normal that John Adams had never been played there.
With musical director Gustavo Dudamel, a close friend of the composer, we suspected that there would be some catching up.
It's done with the entry into the repertoire of
Nixon in China
, and it's a total success.
Created in 1987, this opera recounts the visit of American President Richard Nixon to Mao Tse-tung in 1972, a significant event which marked both the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the awakening of China.
But the librettist Alice Goodman did not make a realistic account of it.
Its rhyming verse libretto is much more poetic than documentary and looks at what is going on inside these beings overwhelmed by their historical status and their…
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