ScheckOnCulture

Most contemporary operas come and go while leaving nary a trace in the cultural zeitgeist. A rare exception is John Adams’ Nixon in China, which is finally making its debut at the Metropolitan Opera a mere 24 years after its world premiere.

The original creative team has largely reassembled for the auspicious occasion. Composer Adams will be conducting at all performances; director Peter Sellars has provided a virtual repeat of his acclaimed staging; and set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls and choreographer Mark Morris are once again on board. The production even features the original star, baritone James Maddalena, who has nicely aged into his role as Nixon.

Unfortunately, the undeniably striking revival doesn’t provide further evidence that the opera is a modern masterpiece. Adams’ largely minimalist score has its stirring moments, but it is also endlessly repetitive. And Alice Goodman’s libretto concerning the history-making trip made by the stalwart cold warrior to the Communist country is a bit of a mess, veering wildly from realism to subtle satire to bizarre flights of absurdism.

The opening scene certainly remains stirring, featuring a massive reproduction of Air Force One landing in Peking and being greeted by Chinese premier Chou En-lai (Russell Braun) and a coterie of officials while the orchestra provides suitably bombastic fanfares.

As befitting the largely ceremonial events being depicts, there is little here in the way of plot. Nixon meets the now infirm Chairman Mao (Robert Brubaker), who proceeds to deliver a series of baffling pronouncements that leave his guests befuddled. A celebratory dinner follows, complete with laudatory toasts. And the president and his wife attend a performance of a revolutionary ballet created by Mao’s wife, Chiang Ch’ing (Kathleen Kim), the plot of which so upsets the couple that they insert themselves into the action.

When all the pomp and circumstance is concluded, the pivotal figures retreat to their bedrooms, where they ponder the significance of what they have accomplished? “Have we done anything that was good?” movingly sings Chou.

The piece is most affecting in its quieter moments, such as Pat Nixon’s quiet aria in which she sings about the path in life she has taken. With the exception of Henry Kissinger (Richard Paul Fink), who is reduced to something of a caricature (he even shows up as a villain in the ballet), the characters are depicted with surprisingly dignity.

Despite the fact that the singers are amplified, the vocals are frequently buried by the orchestra’s volume, with Maddalena in particular frequently having trouble making himself heard above the general din.

For all its flaws, Nixon in China is a work that deserves a place in the operatic repertory, especially since it is the rare example of one dealing with relatively current events. Those unable to procure tickets for one of the Met performances will have the opportunity to see the Feb. 12 matinee being simulcast in movie theaters worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. It is also scheduled to be broadcast on PBS stations later this year.

Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center. 212-362-6000. www.metopera.org.

The Metropolitan Opera’s determination to dust off its cobwebs is in further evidence with its new production of Verdi’s 1853 masterwork La Traviata. Willy Decker’s modernistic staging, which premiered to great acclaim five years ago at the Salzburg Festival, couldn’t be more different from the lavish Franco Zeffirelli warhorse it has replaced.

Featuring a sterling dramatic and musical performance by Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya in her Met debut, the production is a highly visceral and theatrical rendition that emphasizes the work’s emotional complexities in often striking fashion.

Performed on a mostly bare set dominated by a massive curving white wall and a giant clock that all too symbolically emphasizes the short time the Parisian courtesan Violetta has left to live, the staging will no doubt provoke the usual debate between traditionalists and those who want the Met to go off in new directions.

The work is performed in modern dress, in accordance with the composer’s (unfulfilled) wish that it not be performed as a period piece. In the first act party scene, Violetta is clad in a glamorous red cocktail dress, while the male characters are in dark business suits.

The director has choreographed the production with exacting detail, often positioning the massive Met chorus in stylized fashion, such as when they peer over the wall overlooking on the action as if an overpopulated Greek chorus.

There are other striking touches. The heretofore minor character of Doctor Grenvil (Luigi Roni) now hovers nearly constantly on the stage as a visual representation of Violetta’s impending doom. When her lover Alfredo (Matthew Polenzani) angrily confronts her, he doesn’t throw money at her feet but rather stuffs it into her cleavage and up her skirt. And Alfredo’s confrontation with his father (Andrzej Dobber) turns physical, culminating in a slap that sends the young man reeling to the floor. There is no intermission between the second and third acts, with the result that the evening’s second half (or more accurately, two thirds) possesses a strong dramatic momentum.

Although she has to strain at times to reach her high notes, Poplavskaya delivers a powerful vocal turn, and certainly cuts a dramatic and sexy figure. Polenzani handles his romantic arias beautifully, and Dobber sings and acts superbly in the powerful scene in which the father asks Violetta to abandon his son.

The directorial conceits thankfully never become oppressive, although at times there is a distracting self-consciousness to the proceedings. But whatever the flaws or merits of this production, it’s hard not to admire the Met’s willingness to take chances on even its most cherished staples. 

Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center

212-239-6200

www.metopera.org.