Adams: Nixon in China

“Nixon in China is John Adams' most successful opera to date and, from the point of view of contemporary American music as a whole, one of the most celebrated operas. In his documentary work, Adams solves the dispassion of news reports with the tools of music, and although the work is about the US president's five-day visit to China, the music is not a conveyor of a political message. The tragicomic power of Adams' music largely stems from the contrast between the two worlds and customs,” writes Zoltán Csehy in his opera guide. Nixon in China has become a globally popular opera performed more frequently in recent times due to the exciting theme of the meeting of the American and Chinese cultures. Its Hungarian premiere was staged by András Almási-Tóth using the special spaces of the Eiffel Art Studios with exciting imagination. “Nixon is like a modern-day Simon Boccanegra whose wife gets an entire act as she learns about the new world of China. The story of the other couple, Mao and his wife, reveals an exciting relationship behind the ideology in a large-scale operatic show,” says the director.