Hungarian State Opera (live broadcast), 29/09/2024

Adams : Nixon in China

Chorus and Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera

Gergely Vajda

The really interesting thing about this new production of Nixon in China was the space.  Since 2020, Hungarian State Opera has had the use of the Eiffel Arts Studio in Budapest, a vast hangar that once housed the workshops of the Hungarian Royal Railway, and has now been repurposed as a multi-function arts centre and ateliers for the opera company, and they use its multiple performance venues for their more experimental productions.  The Locomotive Hall, the venue for Nixon, is a long, fairly narrow space, with an actual engine and carriage lodged in it, in from of which three platforms were set up not unlike the idea of the three-ring circus.  The orchestra (which we never really saw properly) was in front of this, and then the gradients for the public, seated very close indeed to the action.  

Each stage had a screen behind, and there was a combination of live, hand-cam footage projected, and archive footage and images.  The biggest disadvantage of the space was that there was no real depth to it, so the chorus scenes - especially the Act 1 feast - lacked impact.  It's almost impossible, watching a stream, to get any idea of what it sounded like on-site; the principals at least were all miked up, so the sound was certainly balanced in the venue, but the audience was very close indeed.  However, the broadcast was very clean and clear.

As for costume, the severe suits of the Mao regime were there, but in vibrant colours, while the trio of interpreters, and various other personae, looked rather as if they were extras from "Turandot" who had strayed onto the wrong set.  The strangest were the costumes for the three female dancers of the ballet sequence - an original creation rather than a reproduction of the "Red Detachment of Women" ballet - whose dresses had a peculiarly Hispanic flavour to them, despite decorative panels in clearly Chinese patterns.  Otherwise, the whole played out in fairly regular fashion.

L to R: Zoltán Nyári (Mao Zedong), Károly Szemerédy (Richard Nixon) and Azat Malik (Zhou Enlai)
Nixon in China, Act 1.ii
(© Hungarian State Opera, 2024)

Vocally, the cast was generally excellent, with a couple of established Wagnerians in Zoltán Nyári and Károly Szemerédy as Mao and Nixon bringing real heft to their parts, even with the odd, slight crack at moments.  Klára Colonist brought the requisite sweetness to Pat Nixon, while Rita Rácz delivered brilliantly, and without shrillness, the coloratura role of Madame Mao, though conductor Gergely Vajda took her big aria rather too slowly.  Azat Malik gave a quietly dignified performance as Zhou Enlai.  All in all, a good evening, with a particularly intriguing staging.

[Next : 5th October]