{"id":237565,"date":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/tricky-dick-in-baritone-2\/"},"modified":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T08:00:00","slug":"tricky-dick-in-baritone-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/tricky-dick-in-baritone-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tricky Dick\u2019 in baritone"},"content":{"rendered":"

A unique opera comes to San Diego<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Dixon | Contributor<\/p>\n

An opera about a former president of the United States visiting communist China in 1972 might seem like an unusual idea.<\/p>\n

In fact, when \u201cNixon in China\u201d first premiered in 1987 at the Houston Grand Opera, many critics had mixed reactions. Some were not sure what to make of John Adams\u2019 minimalist music or Alice Goodman\u2019s libretto.<\/p>\n

But time has been kind to the operatic piece, and it has since been reproduced all over the world the last few decades.<\/p>\n

A new interpretation from Director James Robinson, starring acclaimed baritone Franco Pomponi, will have a limited engagement with the San Diego Opera March 14, 17, 20, and 22. This is the first time the piece has been performed in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\"NIX312web\"<\/a>
Franco Pomponi as Nixon greets Mao (Photo by Ken Howard\/Opera Theatre of St. Louis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robinson has his own theory about why reviewers have warmed up to the story over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always new pieces, whether they\u2019re plays or operas, that come out and people don\u2019t know what to think of them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey might be a little too close to the subject matter before people have a chance to step back and reassess it. I think with this one, it was just a very original subject and nobody had really heard anything like this. Now that it\u2019s been produced so many times, a newer generation of people have come to appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Robinson and Pomponi have never worked together on \u201cNixon In China,\u201d neither of them are strangers to the opus. Robinson has directed renditions for numerous companies including Vancouver Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, and Opera Colorado.<\/p>\n

Pomponi\u2019s introduction was a televised version staged by the Houston Grand Opera and shown on PBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I had never seen or heard anything like it before,\u201d Pomponi said.<\/p>\n

The day after seeing \u201cNixon in China\u201d live at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Pomponi got a call asking if he would play Nixon in Paris, at the Theatre du Chatelet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I didn\u2019t think it was possible, so I looked at the score and I had a lot of talks with my agent who thought it would be great to do the title role in Paris,\u201d he said. \u201cIt turned out to be a fantastic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SDOperaNixoninchina01<\/a>To get prepared for the part in Paris, Pomponi conducted a lot of research in order to channel the spirit of Nixon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must have watched between 40-50 documentaries about the time period,\u201d Pomponi said. \u201cI watched documentaries on Mao Zedong\u2019s March as well as the Trial of Jiang Qing [known to many as Madame Mao].\u201d<\/p>\n

Pomponi said he didn\u2019t want to do a direct imitation of the infamous Head of State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more interested in the man that he was,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a very iconic president. He was egomaniacal and completely frail at the same time. He had a lot of paradoxes \u2026 there is a lot of information to grab onto. The psychology is really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson feels that Nixon comes across as somewhat empathetic throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times where he does have his meltdowns, but it\u2019s a very fair depiction of him,\u201d he said. \u201cThe opera is a fictionalized account, but I think that is what the creators intended to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director believes that people who are intrigued by Nixon\u2019s life and have never seen an opera before will enjoy \u201cNixon in China.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who remember Nixon in that time will find it fascinating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Robinson also feels that it will hold equal appeal for music lovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it does require a lot of really great singing, I think an opera audience is going to like the piece,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNixon in China,\u201d presented by the San Diego Opera, will see a limited engagement March 14 \u2013 22 at the San Diego Civic Theatre, located at 1100 Third Ave., Downtown. For more information, specific show dates and times, and tickets, visit sdopera.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014A fan of film and theatre from a very young age, David Dixon has written reviews and features for various print and online publications. You can reach him at daviddixon0202@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A unique opera comes to San Diego David Dixon | Contributor An opera about a former president of the United States visiting communist China in 1972 might seem like an unusual idea. In fact, when \u201cNixon in China\u201d first premiered in 1987 at the Houston Grand Opera, many critics had mixed reactions. Some were not […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":232840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Tricky Dick\u2019 in baritone","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}