NIXON in CIDNA !!!!!I!!!!!I!!II BROOKLYN ACADEMY of MUSIC Harvey Lichtenstein, President and Executive Producer
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B OKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC NIXON IN CIDNA !!!!!I!!!!!I!!II BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC Harvey Lichtenstein, President and Executive Producer in association with HOUSlON GRAND OPERA, nlEJOHNF. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, DE NEDERLANDSE OPERA, and LOS ANGELES MUSIC CENTER OPERA ASSOCIATION BAM Opera House December 4 - 17, 1987 presents NIXON IN CHINA New York Premiere Music by Libretto by JOHN ADAMS ALICE GOODMAN Conducted by Directed by Choreography by EDODEWAART PETER SELLARS MARK MORRIS SeiDesigner Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer ADRIANNELOBEL DUNYARAMICOVA JAMESR INGALLS OTTSMUNDERLOH ORCHESTRA OF S1:LUKE'S Nixon in China was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy ofMusic, Houston Grand Opera, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Petfonning Arts. John Adams dedicates the music ofNixon in China to Betty Freeman. Nixon in China is made possible, in part, with a grant from ROBERT W. WILSON. The Opening night reception for this program is sponsored by REMY MARTIN AMERIQUE, with additional furids provided by SPY. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC II II FEI~~~AL SPONSORED BY PHILIP MORRIS COMPANIES INC. The 1987 NEXT WAVE Festival is sponsored by PIDLIPMORRIS COMPAN:JES n4c. The NEXT WAVE Production andTouring Fund and Festival are supported by: the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THEAR1S, THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, TIlEFORD FOUNDATION, TIlE ELEANOR NAYWR DANA CHARITABLE TRUST, PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, the BOOfH FERRIS FOUNDATION, TIlE IlENRYWCEFOUNDATION,INC.,theAT&TFOUNDATION, THE HOWARD GILMAN FOUNDATION, THE WILLIAM ANDFWRA IlEWLETfFOUNDATION, the MARY FLAGLER CARY CHARITABLE TRUST, THE HINDUJA FOUNDATION, THE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION OFAMERICA, the MORGAN GUARANTY TRUST COMP~ ROBERI' W. Wll.SON, THE REED FOUNDATION INC., tbeEMMAA. SHEAFER CHARITABLE TRUST, SCHLUMBERGER, YVES SAINT LAURENT INTERNATIONAL, andtheNEW YoRK STATE COUNCIL ON THE AR1S. Additional funds for the NEXT WAVE Festival are provided by: THEBEST PRODUCTS FOUNDATION, COCA-eOLA ENTEKI'AINMENT, INC., MEET THE COMPOSER, INC., the, CIGNA CORPORATION, THEWILLIAM AND MARY GREVE FOUNDATION, INC., the SAMUEL I. NEWHOUSE FOUNDATION, THE ARMAND G. ERPF FUND, the ARTHUR ROSS FOUNDATION, the HARKNESS BALLET FOUNDATION, INC., THEWEILER-ARNOW FOUNDATION, AIR INDIA, REMY MARTIN AMERIQUE, the BAM Committee for THE MAHABHARATA, and the BAM NEXT WAVE Producers Counell. WNYC-FM is the official radio station ofthe NEXT WAVE Festival. The Producers Council provides annual private patronage fot; BAM's NEXT WAVE Festival and also organizes and sponsors seminars, exhibitions, publications, and special events for this program throughout the year. The Brooklyn Academy ofMusic wishes to express its appreciation to Theatre Development Fund for its support ofthis season. The BAM facility is owned by the City ofNew York and its operation is supported, in part, with public funds provided through the NEW YORK CITYDEPARI'MENTOFCULTURAL AFFAIRS. The principal capital funding for the BAM MAJESTIC THEATER was provided by the City ofNew York through the New York City Department ofCultural Affairs with the special assistance ofthe Brooklyn Borough President's Office and the Office ofthe Mayor. Joseph V. MelUlo, Director Michael O'Rand, General Manag~r NIXON IN CHINA sung in English CAST (in order ofvocal appearance) Chou En-lai SANFORD SYLVAN Richard Nixon JAMES MADDALENA Henry Kissinger THOMAS HAMMONS Nancy Tang (First Secretary to Mao) MARl OPATZ Second Secretary to Mao STEPHANIE FRIEDMAN Third Secretary to Mao MARION DRY Mao Tse-tung JOHN DUYKERS Pat Nixon CAROLANN PAGE· Chiang Ch'ing (Madame Mao Tse-tung) TRUDY ELLEN CRANEY Hung Ch'ang-ch'ing STEVEN OCHOA Wu Ching-hua HEATHER TOMA Ensemble/Understudies: CHRISTOPHER ARNESON (Chou En-lai), TODD THOMAS (Richard Nixon), FRANK CURTIS (Henry Kissinger), BARRY CRAF T (Mao Tse-tung), SHARON DANIELS (Pat Nixon), JUDY BERRY (Chiang Ch'ing) Dancers: HOMER AVILA, MIGUEL AVILES, PAMELA GIARDINO, MICHAEL ING,ANDREW PACHO, CRISTINA PERERA, PAMELA SEMMLER, KELLY SLOUGH Assistant Stage Director: ROALD SIMONSON. Assistant Choreographer: PETE~ HEALY UME AND PLACE: Peking, China, February 1972 ACT I Scene 1: The airport outside Peking (Nixon's arrival) Scene 2: The ImPerial City (Meeting with Mao) Scene 3: The Great Hall ofthe People (The first banquet) ACT II Scene 1: Mrs. Nixon views China Scene 2: An evening at the Peking Opera (''The Red Detachment ofWomen") Scene 3: The last night in Peking The performance will last approximiltely three hours, with an intermission between acts1and11. SYNOPSIS ACT I , Scene 1: The airfield outside Peking: it isa'cold, clear, dry morriing~ Monday, Febtuary 21, 1972. Continged(s ofarmy, navy and air force circle the, field and sing "The Three Main Rules ofDiscipline and the Eight Points of Attention". Premier Chou En-lai, accompanied by a small group ofofficials, strolls onto the runway just as "The Spirit of '76" taxis into view. President Nixon disembarks. They shake hands and the President sings ofhis excitement and his fears. Scene 2: An hour later he is meeting with Chairman Mao. Mao's conversational armory contains philosophical apothegms, unexpect'ed political observations, and gnomic jokes, and everything he sings is amplified by his secretaries and the Premier. It is not easY,for a Westerner to hold his own in such a dialogUe. Scene 3: After the audience with Mao, everyone at the first evening's banquet is euphoric .. The President and Mrs. Nixon manage to exchange a few words before Premier Chou rises to make the first ofthe evening's toasts, a tribute to patriotic fraternity. The President replies,toasting the Chinese peopleandthehopeofPea,ce. The toasts continue, with less formality, as the night goes on. ACTO Scene 1: Snow has fallen during the night. In the morning Mrs. Nixon is ushered onstage by her party ofguides and journalists. She explains a little ofwhat it feels like for a woman like her to be First Lady,. and 'accepts a glass elephant from the workers at the Peking Glass Factory. She visits the Evergreen People's Commune and the Summer Palace, where she pauses in the Gate ofLongevity and Goodwill to sing, ''This is prophetic!" Then, on to the Ming Tombs before sunset. WQ~en", Scene 2: In the evening, the Nixons attend a performance of"The Red Detacmnent of a revolutionary i ballet devised by Mao's wife, Chiang Ch'ing. The ballet entwines ideological rectitu<l.e with Hollywood-style emotion~ The Nixonsrespondto the latter; they are drawn to the downtrodden peasanrgir~-infact, they are drawn into the action on the side ofsimple virtue. This was not precisely what Chiang Ch"lng had in mind. She sings "I am the wife ofMao Tse-tung", ending with full choral backing. Scene 3: The last evening in Peking. Copyright © by Alice Goodman. All rights reserved PROGRAM NOTES byAlice Goodman Before Nixon in China was Nixon In China, it was the allusions ofthe Chinese literary pantheon, and its 'the opera to be written in rhymed couplets.' Shortly meters, and turns them to its own ends; his admiration after I acquired a telephone, I received a call from ofWestern philosophy and the heroes ofthe American Peter Sellars asking whether I-would be interested in Revolution; Nixon's stint inthe navy during the war, writing the libretto for an opera, 'in couplets-John the fact that he was stationed on various Pacific Adams says he wants couplets' .I said 'Yes', and put islands, Mrs. Nixon's letters to him, the poverty of down the telephone. Not long afterwards Peter Sellars her childhood, and the various rented accommoda rang again to ask what I thought ofNixon in China as tions ofthe early years oftheir marriage; the poverty a title. I said I thought it was a perfect title, but that it ofChiang Chi'ing's childhood; Chou En-Iai's insom had to -be an heroic opera. I would not write it as a sat nia. There was the Long March to be thought about, ire. That, I was informed, was exactly what John 'one year ofalmost continuous marching, totalling Adams had said. And so the matter rested, the form 6,000 miles', as Snow succinctly puts it, the epic feat having evoked the title and the title the character of ofMao's revolution-astonishing that it should have the opera. A little more than a year later we met in taken.place as recently as 1935-andthe Chinese Washington D.C.-almostequidistantfrom John Communist Party's years in the wilderness in north Adams's hOII)e in California and mine in England west China, and its various internecine feuds before to work out the opera's structure. There were all-the the Second'Civil War began in 1946 and ended with back issues ofthe various news magazines, and the the taking ofPeking three years later and the exile of tapes ofthe television newscasts; the beginning ofour Chiang Kai-shek. There were details ofthe famines of research. Once it was clear what exactly had hap the first half ofthe century, echoed in the 1950's. And pened on each ofthe six historic days (21-27 February the Cultural Revolution. What can one say about that 1972), that the President had met with the Chairman blood-bath on Platonic principles? And having said it, on the first day, that the guards had started smiling on what can one say about the famines and the Long the second, that the Great Wall was viewed on the March? I pondered Nixon's love ofhistory and his fourth, and so on, we began to simplify. The opera belief in peace and progress, and I pondered the sig would have three acts, the first comprising three nificance ofthe characters' ages: the Nixons, Kis scenes, the second, two, and the third, one. Things singer and Chiang Ch'ing _in late middle-age, Mao change; Act III has become Act D;' scene 3. We gave and Chou, two old men; all-with the ambition oftheir the characters voices: Mrs.