GREAT PERFORMANCES: NIXON IN CHINA (TV)
Summary
One in this series on the performing arts. Taped before a live audience, this Houston Grand Opera production marks the world premiere of John Adams's two-act, English-language opera, an impressionistic rendering of President Richard M. Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972. Between scenes, host Walter Cronkite, who was in China to report on the event, offers his personal recollections, accompanied by archival news footage. Following introductory comments by Cronkite, the opera begins with the arrival of Nixon, his wife, Pat, and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger at the airport in Peking, where they are received by Prime Minister Chou En-lai and a formal delegation. Accompanied by Kissinger and Chou, Nixon attends a closed meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong. Amid the palpable tension, Nixon ingratiates himself with Mao, and the meeting concludes on a note of optimism. In the following scene, at a formal banquet held on the Nixons's first night in China, Nixon and Chou deliver cordial speeches that emphasize peaceful relations. Act I ends with exuberant toasting. The intermission features an interview with the composer.
As Act II begins, the first lady assumes the role of goodwill ambassador, and visits the Chinese people at a factory, a health clinic, a farm, and a school. First Lady Pat Nixon, during a respite from her diplomatic duties, expresses her sense of awe. In the next scene, Nixon and his wife attend a ballet staged by Madame Mao. The ballet, which invokes the spirit of revolution, concerns the overthrow of an evil landowner by a peasant girl who escapes from bondage and joins the Red army. In a fanciful turn, Kissinger assumes the role of the landowner, while Pat, moved by the performance, leaves her seat and rushes to aid the peasant girl. Madame Mao interrupts the ballet to assert her power and preach the tenets of communism. The audience cheers in mass support as the curtain falls. The final intermission features archival footage of Nixon at the Great Wall and Cronkite's reflections about the diplomatic summit. The opera concludes with a fantasy sequence that combines dance with abstract staging, in which the characters express their private thoughts: Pat longs for home; Madame Mao craves power; Mao Zedong yearns for his youth; Nixon combats his fears; and Chou En-lai prays for peace.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: April 15, 1988 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 2:54:37
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T90:0080
- GENRE: Music
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, historical recreation; Operas; China, People's Repub. - Foreign relations - U S
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1974-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jac Venza … Executive Producer
- John Walker … Coordinating Producer
- Michael Bronson … Producer
- Ellen Elwell Warner … Associate Producer
- David Horn … Series Producer
- Brian Large … Director
- Peter Sellars … Director
- Gerald Fitzgerald … Writer
- John Corigliano … Theme Music by
- John Adams … Composer
- John DeMain … Conductor
- Alice Goodman … Librettist
- Mark Morris … Choreographer
- Houston Grand Opera Orchestra … Symphony Orchestra
- Houston Grand Opera Chorus … Chorus
- Walter Cronkite … Host
- James Maddalena … Cast, Richard M. Nixon
- Carolann Page … Cast, Pat Nixon
- Sanford Sylvan … Cast, Chou En-lai
- John Duykers … Cast, Mao Zedong
- Trudy Ellen Craney … Cast, Madame Mao (Chiang Ch'ing)
- Thomas Hammons … Cast, Henry Kissinger
- Mari Opatz … Cast, Mao's Secretary
- Marion Dry … Cast, Mao's Secretary
- Stephanie Friedman … Cast, Mao's Secretary
- Heather Toma … Cast, Dancer
- Steven Ochoa … Cast, Dancer