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| Nixon in China |
I am wondering if I am getting to be like other people who say, when asked, what is the best opera you have seen, they say,“It would be the one I just saw”.
That is the case for me.
I woke up wondering how I could fit in another 3 hours of viewing time this morning before it stops streaming.
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| Mao with his secretaries on the left Nixon on the right |
Richard came over last night and showed me how to take the picture off of my computer and get it up to my TV screen.
That enhances the viewing experience. Then I used one of the waffle cones I have in my cupboard. Nothing like topping up a cone with Cookies and Cream Ice Cream from my freezer to watch the opera.
The show was brilliant. I have gone out to the Met links this morning. In the second act it would have been nice for me to know that I was seeing a Peking Glass Factory, the Evergreen People’s Commune, the Summer Palace (and the Gate of Longevity and Good Will), the Ming Tombs and a ballet by the Red Detachment of Women. I am sure my sister, Moiya, would have enjoyed that segment.
The opening handshake in the opera was later quoted by Chou saying “that handshake was over the vastest distance in the world, 25 years of no communication.” Chinese sources later said it was Nixon who made the comment. The reporter speaking in a supplementary article that the met publishes says, “Either way, the ice began to melt”.
Greg Bates? Thank you for inviting me to come to China in the 1990’s. That trip is still deep in my heart and one of the reasons I am going now to watch that opera again.
And yes, after the second viewing this morning I had more research to do on the internet. ie Tell me more about Peter Sellers, the director. Who was Lan P'ing? How did Mao die? And so the morning went as though I were out with my friends at the opera.
Arta
I did love seeing this Opera in the theatre.
ReplyDeleteAnd like you, my trip to China 19 years ago is one I am still processing. When I watched the news, live streaming of how quickly those extra hospitals were constructed, I thought of the many people I met in China. How is the woman who cut the pineapple for me each day, one the first day at the market, two the second, and when I came back for three the next day she was able to mine to me her concern that I was going to give myself cancers. Is she well? What about the woman in the market who Sat on the ground with a hanky spread out in front of her, and no more than five handful of fresh peanuts displayed for sale. Did she get sick? Did her loved ones survive?
I had forgotten how we mimed when we wanted to speak to others in the market. We found ways to say that you were my daughter. All I had to do was pretend to rock a baby and then point to you. And somehow she understood Wyona was my sister.
ReplyDeleteYes.
China.
Wyona told me that for her it was a life changing event. I wondered if that would happen to me.
Yes. Seeing China from the inside. Life changing. What about the woman who had live frogs on a string and we saw her skin one for her customer. Or the man I saw in the market whose eyes locked on mine. He was pedalling a bicycle that was carrying huge bolts of material through the market. And what about the family who sold goods out of the front of their store and lived in the back, raised their children that way, the children's front room the rows of shelves in the shop.
I think this is why I had to watch Nixon in China two times. Once at night and then again the next morning -- studying the actors and listening to the text the songs: Founders come first / Then profiteers / Capitalists / An organized oblivion / Let us not be deceived.
Who was that song for in the opera? Nixon? Or was it their fear of what might come?
Thanks for chatting, Bonnie.