Nixon in China at the Met

This past Saturday (Feb. 12, 2011), I saw a simulcast of the opera "Nixon in China" live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. (I was at the Portsmouth Music Hall.) I've wanted to experience this opera in its entirety ever since hearing about it shortly after graduating from college, and this was my first chance.

I find the music of John Adams to be exciting to listen to. I feel that it does capture the American experience in ways that are unique to my time. And the idea of an opera about Richard M. Nixon and Chairman Mao, figures that are from my time on the planet and whom I remember (instead of, say, the Duke of Mantua from 'Rigoletto'), is tremendous, in that it treats contemporary events as material to celebrate the bigger emotions in the way that only opera can.

I would love to hear the music again and again, and probably will. But my first impression of the whole three-and-a-half hour experience was a sense that it can be done differently and more effectively. Somewhere out there, there's a blend of the strengths of opera with the immediacy of, say, a Broadway musical. And as good as "Nixon," is, I thought it didn't do that, exactly.

And that blend is what I would aim for in creating a piece of theater that both speaks to today's audiences but also is rooted in the classic traditions of opera and musical theater. That's what I hope to do with the Pam Smart story, and a few others, once I get to a point when I can.

Right now, silent film music takes up all the creative energy. But making a piece of opera come to life is something to look forward to, someday.