Vancouver Opera’s Nixon In China To Be Staged In San Francisco And Kansas City

Photo credit: Tim Matheson

Vancouver Opera’s production of Nixon in China will be mounted by two American opera companies during their 2011-2012 seasons. San Francisco Opera will stage the John Adams opera in June 2012. And the Lyric Opera of Kansas City will present the VO production in its inaugural season at the new Moshe Safdie-designed Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

To read more from the Globe and Mail, click here.

Richard Nixon, Opera Superstar

Most modern operas get performed and then forgotten—but not Nixon in China. This treatment of president Richard Nixon’s famous meeting with Mao Tse-tung, composed by Pulitzer Prize-winner John Adams and written by Alice Goodman, wasn’t performed in North America for almost two decades after its 1987 premiere. But suddenly, everyone wants to do it. The Vancouver Opera gave the work its Canadian premiere last year, and in February, it will debut at both the Canadian Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera.

James Wright, Vancouver Opera’s general director, told Maclean’s that its production “sold more tickets than expected,” and it may rent its version to other companies. What was once dismissed as a “CNN opera” is doing better than CNN.

To read more from Macleans Magazine, click here.

The Totally Subjective, Somewhat Random Top Five Performing Arts Moments Of 2010

Vancouver Opera's Nixon in China makes it onto Janet Smith's top 5 performing arts moment of 2010!


Photo credit: Tim Matheson

In one of the strongest years in memory at our local aria purveyors—a year that saw a mind-blowing Butterfly, a luminous Lucia, and an insanely ambitious new Canadian opera—this was the show that stood out. The abstract, ever-shifting tableaux of towering podiums and propaganda posters gave it the look of an opium dream, and John Adams’s ever-driving music felt epically cinematic. Striking, challenging, and unforgettable. - Georgia Straight

Thank you Georgia Straight!

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager

Why Nixon In China Was Worth The Risk

Illustration credit: Edel Rodriguez

Producing an expensive, elaborate contemporary opera during a recession tested the company and community.

Vancouver Opera's decision to produce the Canadian premiere of John Adams's 1987 opera Nixon in China during this time was a tricky proposition. Why risk alienating audiences, subscribers and donors with a daring contemporary work? Why risk breaking a string of fiscally successful years? And why spend a lot of money on something that may not pay off at the box office?

General Director James W. Wright answer these questions in the Vancouver Sun. Click here to read more.