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Visit jolted worlds of politics, opera

By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 5, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.

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Opera Colorado's Nixon in China features, from left, Maria Kanyova as Pat Nixon, Robert Orth as Richard Nixon, Chen-Ye Yuan as Chou En-lai, Thomas Hammons as Henry Kissinger, Tracy Dahl as Madame Mao and Marc Heller as Mao Tse-tung. Composer John Adams' work is regarded as one of the seminal works of the late 20th century.

Photo by Marie Griffin / The Rocky

Opera Colorado's Nixon in China features, from left, Maria Kanyova as Pat Nixon, Robert Orth as Richard Nixon, Chen-Ye Yuan as Chou En-lai, Thomas Hammons as Henry Kissinger, Tracy Dahl as Madame Mao and Marc Heller as Mao Tse-tung. Composer John Adams' work is regarded as one of the seminal works of the late 20th century.

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"News, news, news has a kind of mystery," exclaims President Richard Nixon as he is greeted by Premier Chou En-lai in the dramatic opening scene of John Adams' Nixon in China.

Just as there was plenty of mystery surrounding Nixon's surprise journey to the hidden world of Mao's China in 1972, the operatic treatment of that trip likewise carried an air of the unknown as it took shape in 1986.

Though Adams' work has since emerged as one of the seminal works of the late 20th century, it was greeted with skepticism and ambivalence by some singers invited to audition for its 1987 premiere in Houston.

Two members of the cast of Opera Colorado's production, opening Saturday at the Ellie, were among those initially indifferent: baritone Robert Orth and bass-baritone Thomas Hammons.

"I was in my manager's office 20 years ago," recalled Orth. "He said to me, 'They're doing an opera on Nixon. I told them you were busy. Who's going to want to see an opera about Richard Nixon?' I didn't argue. That was that. Instead, Jimmy Maddalena got the (title) role."

Orth may have missed out on that groundbreaking premiere (the work was soon dubbed the first "CNN Opera"), but he has essentially taken over the role of Nixon. Opera Colorado's production will mark the fifth time he's sung the role since he started with the 2004 premiere of James Robinson's staging in St. Louis.

A career out of Kissinger

Fate would play a different hand for Hammons when he got that first call. "It's amazing how one decision you make can change your history," he said.

"I was on the first day of my vacation down in Georgia, when my manager rang me up and said, 'They're doing an opera about Nixon and they're looking for someone to sing Henry Kissinger.' I didn't want to go, but she said, 'I'll pay for the ticket.' How could I refuse?"

Hammons went on to create the role of Nixon's national security adviser. "It made my career," he said, adding that it led to his casting as a terrorist in Adams' follow-up opera, The Death of Klinghoffer. While performing that work in Brussels, Belgium, he met his future wife.

It's safe to say that Nixon in China changed Adams' life as well. A work that caught the world's attention through its sheer novelty and brilliance established the California composer as an important new voice. Still, no one knew if Nixon would stick around.

"It was perceived as of-the-moment back then," Adams told the Rocky in 1998, when he conducted a reduced concert version of Nixon in Aspen. "Everyone expected it to be passe. It had its first blush, and then was ignored. I could never understand that.

"I thought of it like a Shakespeare play or a historical novel," said Adams. "Those deal with human nature, and so did this."

Alice Goodman's richly hued poetic libretto avoided cartoonish depictions, instead bringing depth and sympathy to the characters.

Adams' colorful score paints larger-than-life pictures, gliding from a series of dreamy opening scales to an enormous explosion of overlapping chords and shifting rhythms as Air Force One arrives near Beijing. It's complex music that never lets up, causing anguish for the singers.

"The hardest part?" Orth said. "The counting. The irregularity of the rhythms. Fortunately, Marin (Alsop) is conducting, and she can really help us a lot."

Avoiding a Nixon parody

Orth approached his Nixon characterization with a sense of respect, avoiding parody while "trying to get in his head. Your job as an actor is to be true to the character. He was not all bad, after all."

Hammons faced a different challenge: Creating the role of a famous living American, one the singer had demonstrated against during the Vietnam War. ("My draft number was 2," he said.) "I thought this would be fun. I didn't know who John Adams was. I knew who Mick Jagger was."

The singer found "a new way of acting" in rehearsals, also gaining some dance experience: He joins the ballet performance in Act Two and executes some somersaults.

Early rehearsals in 1987 found him "wiped out emotionally and physically." But the excitement grew as opening night approached. "We knew we were doing something important. But we didn't know just how important."

Knowing your Nixon

The story behind the opera

Originally staged by Houston Grand Opera in 1987, this groundbreaking work features music by John Adams and a poetic libretto by Alice Goodman. Peter Sellars directed the original staging, with choreography by Mark Morris. James Robinson's production was premiered by Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2004, featuring Robert Orth and Maria Kanyova, with Marin Alsop conducting. The action follows the events of Feb. 21-25, 1972, when the President and Pat Nixon made a historic visit to communist China.

* Act One follows the Nixons and Henry Kissinger as they arrive on Air Force One and are met on the tarmac by Premier Chou En-lai. They are later brought to a hastily arranged meeting with Chairman Mao Tse-tung. That night, toasts are exchanged at a state banquet.

* Act Two focuses on the two women: Pat Nixon and Madame Mao. We follow the first lady as she visits various sites. That night, the Nixons are entertained with a brutal realist ballet, The Red Detachment of Women, whose violence upsets Mrs. Nixon. Madame Mao, author of the work, sings a remarkable aria praising her husband's revolution. The violence of the performance intensifies, sucking in Kissinger, Mrs. Nixon and Madame Mao.

* Act Three finds the central characters in reflective moods: the Nixons in their hotel room, recalling their early days together; Mao and his wife sharing their thoughts on the start of the communist revolution; and Chou meditating in solitude and gazing to the future.

Nixon in China

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday and June 13, plus 2 p.m. June 15 in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 14th and Curtis streets

* Cost: $28 to $157

* Information: 303-357-2787

* Of note: Opera Colorado presents John Adams' opera. Marin Alsop leads the Colorado Symphony. The production will be recorded live for Naxos.