When Rich wanted to see the opera Nixon in China performed by the Canadian Opera Company, I was less enthused. Rich is not much of an opera lover himself but being a history buff, the topic of this show intrigued him. A good compromise came up when we learned that Cineplex theatres were broadcasting the the opera live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. For a mere $25 per ticket (significantly cheaper than the lowest priced opera seat), we could watch the action on a large screen in the high definition, surround sound enabled theatre that had reserved stadium style seating so there were none of the usual issues of sightlines for short people like me. Although it lacked the excitement and intensity of watching a live performance, it had its own advantages. We got to see shots of the orchestra being conducted for the first time by John Adams, the composer of the opera. Between acts, they cut to shots behind the scenes and held interviews with members of the cast and crew to provide additional insights into the show.
We also got to see the elaborate staging of the Met's production, as opposed to the smaller road show held at Toronto's Four Seasons Opera House. For the arrival of the Nixons in China, the entire front end of an airliner descended onto the stage (reminiscent of the helicopter from Miss Saigon) and the doors opened to reveal the President, First Lady and Henry Kissinger. Watching Nixon in China served to reinforce my original opinion about opera. I found the score and orchestration to be jarring. Although the opera was in English, the style of singing made it difficult for me to understand what was being sung, so I read the subtitles to catch the gist of the storyline. Unfortunately the lyrics seemed totally random to both Rich and I, and did not reflect the synopsis which we were given to read prior to the show. We assumed that Mao's dialogues were intentionally ambiguous, reflecting the historically documented style of his speech at the time. His statements ("History is a dirty sow") were described as philosophical and allegorical in nature. However even when the other characters sang, we still couldn't figure out what they were trying to convey. Perhaps it was too poetic for us and we were just not sophisticated enough opera connoisseurs.
I found it amusing that the deep vibrato style of operatic singing made every line seem to have such importance, even when discussing something as banal as the weather. Rich thought they sounded like rappers in the way they repeated a line over and over again. At one point, Kissinger sang at least 5 times "There, you've got me, I'm lost" and I thought, that's exactly how I feel watching this. Whenever Chairman Mao spoke, his words were echoed by three identically dressed female party members wearing thick rimmed glasses - the Chinese version of a "Greek chorus".
For me, the most entertaining part of the opera was watching the revolutionary ballet which Mao's wife arranged to be performed for the Nixons. The dancers superbly mixed typical ballet moves with Red Army stances and gestures. However even this got confusing when for some reason the Nixons and then Mao's wife ended up in the middle of the performance.
Actually, the most entertaining part happened before the opera even started. A woman placed her coat in the seat next to us and then left temporarily. Shortly after a man appeared and muttered that someone was in his seat. I told him that a lady had left her coat and was coming back, to which he declared that she was in the wrong seat. When the woman who returned ended up to be his wife, he exclaimed " I didn't realize the lady was you!". It made me think of the old joke, "That's no lady, that's my wife!"
So we've concluded that although Nixon in China is probably a wonderful opera, as the unanimous rave reviews seem to prove, it's just not our cup of tea. Back to musical theatre for us. However we definitely would watch another live broadcast of a show at the Cineplex again. That was a good experience.
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