"Only Nixon Could Go to China."

Roar! There is an old proverb that I've always wondered about, "Only Nixon could go to China." I first heard it years ago but didn't know what lesson I was supposed to take from U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China. But now, after yesterday, everything seems clear! For their winter season the Metropolitan Opera is doing a performance of John Adams's Nixon in China which takes the story of Nixon's trip to China and raises it to a mythic status. They had a drawing last week for free tickets to the final dress rehearsal and I won a pair! I asked my Chinese friend, Bao Bao, if he wanted to go with me so the two of us headed up to the Metropolitan Opera to see the show!

 

Here are Bao Bao and I outside the Metropolitan Opera House. It's a pretty awesome looking building. Even though I'd heard that people don't dress up for the Opera anymore I decided I should try to look my best and wore a bow tie. Bao Bao said he was born in a tux so he didn't need to dress up. Roar!

Here is the inside the opera hall. It's a really impressive space. They also have a cool chandelier that can lower the lights down from the ceiling so they are closer to the orchestra! So instead of lowering the lights when they start the show, the Met raises them up! Roar!

The lights went up so Bao Bao and I knew the opera was starting. Here we are waiting to learn all about Nixon in China! Roar!

The opera was really awesome! the music was great and the sets were really cool too. Here is a scene from the beginning where Nixon gets off the plane in China. I asked Bao Bao what he thought of the opera and he said that "it was quite good" and he "especially liked how the text was composed of rhymed couplets similar to Chinese poetry." Unfortunately Bao Bao didn't have all praise for the Opera, he was concerned that, though accurate, "the portrayal of the elderly Chairman Mao could be construed to mean China was weak." Oh Bao Bao, always the critic! 

I'm not sure if Bao Bao entirely got the play but he is viewing it through a different cultural lens than I am. What I really liked is how the composers took a historical event and looked at all the political implications, ideas, and themes surrounding that event, and then raised them up to a mythic level that can only be achieved through something like opera. When viewed in this light the old proverb suddenly makes sense! Of course only Nixon could go to China! It was the Cold War and he was the president of the United States. No one else would have been allowed to visit! Roar!