On February 12th, under the auspices of the newish  The Met Live in HD  series of productions, we went to see Nixon in China in live performance at the Met but showing  simultaneously at selected cinemas around the world, in this instance  the Gate Cinema, Notting Hill. Firstly the Metropolitan Opera deserves a huge bravo for initiating this idea, which I thought might have pitfalls but, if last evening was anything to go by, will run successfully for a long time to come. Something of the excitement of arriving at a great opera house seemed to have filtered through to this small cinema in West London  and I noticed, not without some satisfaction, that our audience didn’t seem significantly dowdier than that arriving for a matinée at the Met.

When I saw this production before I remember the first act seeming very static but the two great advantages of seeing it on film are, firstly, that the camera at least can move around and secondly, we had the magic of the close-up shots of the performers, missed by  our co-audience actually in the opera house. These two things added, in this instance, immeasurably to my enjoyment of the work.

The idea of turning this momentous meeting of  opposing ideologies into an opera came from Peter Sellars, who was in charge of the Met production; he put the idea to John Adams who, as well as having composed the music, was conducting the orchestra for yesterday‘s performance.  The work seems to have gained in stature – possibly it needs the size of stage provided by the Met and simply not available at the Colisseum in London, where I saw it before. The production seemed the same but widened and enlarged. The music seemed at the same time weightier and more tuneful than I remembered. This is nothing less than a truly great 20th century American opus.

James Maddalena’ singing as Nixon, a part he seems to have appropriated, seemed a little under par yesterday but the other performers were at the top of their game: Janis Kelly making much of Pat Nixon’s bewilderment and confusion when faced with a culture so alien to her own; Russell Braun magnificent as Chou En-lai, movingly wondering if the regime had achieved what it had set out to do and, indeed, if their aims were right for the Chinese people, whilst suffering from the pancreatic cancer which would soon kill him; Kathleen Kim giving a bravura performance as Madame Mao with Robert Brubaker strong as the frail Mao himself. Richard Paul Fink was also extraordinary as Henry Kissinger who, in the second act, takes the lead in a ballet choreographed by Mark Morris, while singing – no small feat for a somewhat portly singer.

All-in-all a wonderful and fascinating evening, and a chance to see world-class performers in great works a few hundred yards from home. Can’t wait for the next broadcast…..