Nixon in China

“One of the most intelligent productions currently to be seen on opera stages!” (Bernd Künzig, SWR2) Director Marco Štorman stages Adam’s minimal music opera as a deconstruction review about the power of images, the politics of (self) staging and the staging of politics. Besides the landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Richard Nixon’s meeting with China’s leader Mao Zedong in February 1972 then represented one of the biggest media spectacles in history. It was not John Adam’s aim to create a superficial or even a caricaturing representation of Nixon’s visit when composing his opera. He attempted to create a „heroic opera“ about the construction of modern myths by using archetypical characters and situations.