John Adams' Nixon in China Staged as Ping-Pong Match at Paris Opera

The Opéra national de Paris presents a new production of John Adams' 1987 opera Nixon in China, directed by Valentina Carrasco and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, running until April 16, 2023. Carrasco, formerly of La Fura dels Baus, reimagines the historical 1972 meeting between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong as a surreal ping-pong match, replacing the original airplane arrival with a slow-motion table tennis game under a metallic eagle. The production emphasizes the opera's themes of illusion and propaganda, incorporating a chilling excerpt from Murray Lerner's documentary From Mao to Mozart (1981) about violinist Isaac Stern's China tour. The cast includes Thomas Hampson as Nixon, Renée Fleming as Pat Nixon, John Matthew Myers as Mao, Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch'ing, and Joshua Bloom as Henry Kissinger. The opera, the first minimalist work to enter the Paris Opera repertoire, gains contemporary resonance amid US-China economic tensions and TikTok espionage allegations. A broadcast on France Musique is scheduled for April 29, 2023.