Nixon *clap clap* Nixoff *clap clap
Mar. 12th, 2004 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sigersonJust got back from seeing Nixon in China with DaMan. This is John Adams' first opera, and unfortunately, his influences are far too clear. It sounds like altered Glass or Reich. Mostly Glass. Lots of triads, ascending scales, etc. Not that that's bad--I love "Satyagraha", and always will. But I get tired of it used without the same focus as the best of Glass. (The worst of Glass, now that's a matter for another rant.)
First act good. (Performances all round were good, especially Pat Nixon. Design and direction all good. I'm mostly responding to the music.) I liked that there's only a tiny hint of the paranoia and Watergate-etc. that is Nixon's primary association today. That hint comes at the end of Act 1 Scene 1, and it's quick and intense--but you don't see it again. I like that. All of the characters, except maybe Kissinger, were complete, most sympathetic. Scene 2 is a conversation between Mao and Nixon, and it's very good--both state philosophy or theory left and right, but neither can really grasp the other's meaning.
The second act was too surreal. Not greatly so--no untethered flying pigs, but there was a solo that didn't make much sense, an intentional doublecasting, a blurring of the line between "play" and "play within a play". Pat Nixon is an intelligent woman, she should be able to tell when an actress is not actually being hurt. It doesn't make sense without stepping very far outside the lines set in the first act. Possibly that's the point--but I don't find it effective or useful.
Despite the lyricism and beauty in the third act, especially the duets between Madame Mao and Mao, I found myself nodding off. It just didn't change enough. No, that's not it...or at least, that's not the only feature.
What's more relevant is that Adams _changed_. He got better. His opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro is far better than Nixon in China. The solos don't impress me much more, but the choruses--O Lady, the choruses! The first two parts are 'prologues': a Chorus of Displaced Palestinians and a Chorus of Displaced Jews. The first rises out of lyricism into a terrifying anger; the second has to be the most beautiful coming-home-to-the-lost-love song in the world. "Your neighbor, the one who let me in, she was raised on stories of our love." Then there's the Night Chorus, which should cause buildings to collapse. I don't remember the Sea Chorus, or the closing part of the opera...I have only heard DaMan's copy of it.
Last year at ART, we had several opera singers in one of the plays. Two of them had been in the premiere of Klinghoffer. I went down to the dressing rooms and got to geek out in a totally new way--the "new music geek".
Perhaps this will open the doors of Boston to more new opera that's not of the dense-sound-world school. Perhaps Klinghoffer will be performed, or even The Cave (by Steve Reich, quite cool--and curiously, also dealing with the relations between Jews and Muslims). All we can do is hope, and keep looking for music that interests us.
And now for random amusements for the weekend:
The Mars Rovers have their own LiveJournals:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
opportunitygrrl
And further commentary on the social effects of gay marriage: Red Planet...Pink Planet?
now I shall go hide under a duvet and snore.
First act good. (Performances all round were good, especially Pat Nixon. Design and direction all good. I'm mostly responding to the music.) I liked that there's only a tiny hint of the paranoia and Watergate-etc. that is Nixon's primary association today. That hint comes at the end of Act 1 Scene 1, and it's quick and intense--but you don't see it again. I like that. All of the characters, except maybe Kissinger, were complete, most sympathetic. Scene 2 is a conversation between Mao and Nixon, and it's very good--both state philosophy or theory left and right, but neither can really grasp the other's meaning.
The second act was too surreal. Not greatly so--no untethered flying pigs, but there was a solo that didn't make much sense, an intentional doublecasting, a blurring of the line between "play" and "play within a play". Pat Nixon is an intelligent woman, she should be able to tell when an actress is not actually being hurt. It doesn't make sense without stepping very far outside the lines set in the first act. Possibly that's the point--but I don't find it effective or useful.
Despite the lyricism and beauty in the third act, especially the duets between Madame Mao and Mao, I found myself nodding off. It just didn't change enough. No, that's not it...or at least, that's not the only feature.
What's more relevant is that Adams _changed_. He got better. His opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro is far better than Nixon in China. The solos don't impress me much more, but the choruses--O Lady, the choruses! The first two parts are 'prologues': a Chorus of Displaced Palestinians and a Chorus of Displaced Jews. The first rises out of lyricism into a terrifying anger; the second has to be the most beautiful coming-home-to-the-lost-love song in the world. "Your neighbor, the one who let me in, she was raised on stories of our love." Then there's the Night Chorus, which should cause buildings to collapse. I don't remember the Sea Chorus, or the closing part of the opera...I have only heard DaMan's copy of it.
Last year at ART, we had several opera singers in one of the plays. Two of them had been in the premiere of Klinghoffer. I went down to the dressing rooms and got to geek out in a totally new way--the "new music geek".
Perhaps this will open the doors of Boston to more new opera that's not of the dense-sound-world school. Perhaps Klinghoffer will be performed, or even The Cave (by Steve Reich, quite cool--and curiously, also dealing with the relations between Jews and Muslims). All we can do is hope, and keep looking for music that interests us.
And now for random amusements for the weekend:
The Mars Rovers have their own LiveJournals:
opportunitygrrlAnd further commentary on the social effects of gay marriage: Red Planet...Pink Planet?
now I shall go hide under a duvet and snore.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-13 06:03 am (UTC)I liked it, but I haven't seen Death of Klinghoffer, either, and if that's better, it might color my feelings. I too nodded off during the final act. Partially b/c I found the lighting and sets and props and choreography really great in the first two acts, and they seemed to have run out of juice in the final one. Also, b/c I had the cheapest seats in the house, I couldn't see the scrolling text across the top of the proscemium (sp?) so there were times (Act 1, Scene 2 and Act III especially) that I couldn't understand the words, which would have helped.