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Mar. 2nd, 2011 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAs I mentioned before, recently a bunch of us went to see Nixon in China!
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gramarye, who knows the most about the history and politics, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sandrylene, who knows the most about the music, have already written up excellent reviews, and before you go any further you should read them:
Shannon the historian's review
Sandry the music major's review
But now that they have done that, I thought I might as well offer up my layman's-eye summary of the proceedings!
The short version: the experience was certainly interesting, but I think my main feelings throughout the show were a.) confusion and b.) GIANT CONTACT EMBARRASSMENT.
ACT I: The C-Span Opera
So Act I was probably the most comprehensible, being largely a pretty straightforward portrayal of Nixon's arrival and initial conversations with Mao - or at least it would have been comprehensible, if we were not seated so far away that we never had any idea who was talking at any given time. (Nixon, Kissinger and Chou En-Lai all sounded the same!)
We begin with a giant chorus of singing Communists, interrupted by the arrival of Nixon, Mrs. Nixon and Kissinger. They all sing in a dramatic operatic baritones about how their flight was long and they napped on the plane.
KISSINGER: Hey, Chou En-lai, my bro, it's good to see you after all the meetups we've been having around the globe -
CHOU EN-LAI: Dude, can we PLEASE not talk about how I am a cosmopolitan world traveler right in public in front of all my political rivals?
NIXON, MRS. NIXON AND KISSINGER: *awkward*
Then Nixon sings a solo about how excited he is about ALL THIS PUBLICITY and then they retire to their meeting with Mao and the Mao-ettes! (Mao's aides, who spend most of their time reinforcing Mao's dialogue with vigorous hand motions.) This landmark political meeting between two opposing economic forces begins with some manly banter about Kissinger's sex life.
NIXON: Yeah, Henry Kissinger is like a SEXY SECRET AGENT or something, he has a girl in every port! Dude gets around!
KISSINGER: I do, in fact, get around.
MAO: I also have been known to get around.
NIXON: Good for you, man!
CHOU EN-LAI: *diplomatic silence*
NIXON: does all this manly banter about sex mean we are bonding
KISSINGER: no sir, I do not think it means we are bonding
At the time I was puzzled by this! It was not until Act III that I realized this was in fact FORESHADOWING. More on this later.
Alas, after this jovial interlude, negotiations rapidly go downhill.
MAO: Let me quote my own epigrams at you about how our history -
NIXON: Yes, history is very important!
MAO: - is something we have to jettison. PROGRESS. REVOLUTION.
NIXON: . . . . Confucius?
KISSINGER, CHOU EN-LAI and BECCA: oh my god noooooooooooo
Contact embarrassment #1! Nixon proceeds to helplessly bleat "CONFUUUUCIUS" at Mao several more times while Mao sings foreshadowingly about the Cultural Revolution, the Mao-ettes nod sternly beside him, and Kissinger and Chou En-Lai facepalm. (At least, so far as we could tell from the nosebleed seats.) All throughout this, by the way, Mao is sort of staggering around the stage and looking like he's in the process of an asthma attack, and Nixon sort of keeps shuffling around awkwardly and looking like he's not sure whether to help him out or back away slowly.
The negotiations apparently are not going well.
However! Then we get an exciting BANQUET where everyone toasts each other and gets mildly trashed, so perhaps prospects have improved. The humongous Met chorus is clearly very excited because now they finally get to do something that vaguely resembles dancing, as opposed to politely waiting offstage while people sit in chairs and sing at each other. (Mostly what they get to do is just walking around in long lines and shaking people's hands, but it's still more than they have gotten to do so far!)
END OF ACT I.
Shannon takes this moment to helpfully explain to us the twenty political in-jokes in the scene between Nixon, Mao, Kissinger and Chou En-Lai that we did not understand. We are all very grateful for Shannon!
Act II: Pat Nixon is Very Confused
The beginning of Act II, in which Pat Nixon is sort of rushed around China, is probably the best part of the opera - poor Pat Nixon is very out-of-her-depth and confused, and her solos are actually really good, as are all the amazingly-portrayed awkward moments.
FACTORY WORKERS: Here is a present for you!
PAT NIXON: Oh lovely! Is it one of a kind?
FACTORY WORKERS: . . . . no, it is made in a factory.
TOUR GUIDES: Here is a model farm with a pig!
VERY ENTHUSIASTIC CHORAL SINGERS: Pigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpig!
PAT NIXON: . . . . . it's a great pig!
PAT NIXON: Oh what lovely monuments!
TOUR GUIDES: Yes, those monuments were built on the oppressed, crushed bodies of our ancestors.
PAT NIXON: . . . . oh.
Aaaand then we get to the second half of Act II.
In the second half of Act II, Madame Mao puts on a production of The Red Detachment of Women, one of the model ballets. In the ballet, a poor village girl is tormented by an evil landlord, and then she is rescued by the Communist regime. EXCEPT they have trouble getting to that point, because during the bit where the poor village girl is being balletically tortured, Pat Nixon FLIPS OUT and starts shrieking about how the evil overlord is hurting that poor girl, he's going to kill her, and runs up ON STAGE and starts cradling the ballerina in her arms. Please note that the whole thing is very clearly a ballet. There is no actual violence going on! THEY ARE WEARING TOE SHOES!
BECCA: omg noooooooooooooo PAT NIXON WHAT ARE YOU DOING
BALLERINA: . . . .
NIXON: . . . .
CHOU EN-LAI: . . .
PAT NIXON: SOMEONE GET THIS GIRL A DOCTOR.
BALLERINA: Um . . . I think you are kind of missing the point here . . .
MADAME MAO: Are you even kidding me?!
BECCA: This is the most contact embarrassment I have ever had.
We pause the whole play for Madame Mao to storm out, do a one-minute curtain-ripping dance of EXTREME FRUSTRATION, and then stomp back into the show. For just this one moment I sympathize with her with my whole heart.
And then Pat Nixon pops up in the middle of the corps de ballet holding a rifle, and Madame Mao sings a high-pitched aria of rage and screams at the ballerina to shoot somebody, and Chou En-Lai is looking extremely long-suffering and Nixon is looking very embarrassed and then I think we have a balletic representation of the Cultural Revolution that at this point in time has not actually happened yet and I have NO IDEA what is going on except that if this is the sort of thing that happens I would never ever want to go see a movie with Pat Nixon, ever.
END OF ACT II.
BECCA: What! What just happened! Are the Nixons just too stupid to tell the difference between REALITY and FICTION?
EVERYONE ELSE: . . . .
BECCA: . . . okay fine I see what you did there.
ACT III: And Then Mao Has Sex Everywhere
Our program informs us that in Act III, the Nixons will sing about their relationship and the Maos will dance together! We settle in, anticipating some nice political couples time.
Our program is . . . sort of right, and yet does not give us ANY IDEA of what we are in for. The curtain opens on a GIANT CARDBOARD HEAD OF MAO, in front of which are six beds. In the far left beds, the Nixons do in fact sing about their relationship! Mostly their song goes like this:
PAT NIXON: Tell me something you've never told me about the war.
NIXON: I will tell you about how I flipped burgers like an AWESOME AMERICAN.
PAT NIXON: Dear, you told me that already.
Meanwhile, in the next bed over, Chou En-Lai continues to look long-suffering. We all feel so, so bad for Chou En-Lai at this point. One bed over from him, Henry Kissinger is making time with one of the Mao-ettes.
BECCA: Oh, so THAT's what all that manly banter about Kissinger's sex life at the beginning was about!
Meanwhile, on the far right of the stage, Mao and Madame Mao sing about revolution and dance for about thirty seconds and then start 'dancing,' by which I mean having some athletic sex. Considering that just two acts ago Mao was tottering around like he was going to have a heart attack, I am pretty impressed by his fortitude!
Kissinger finishes up with the Mao-ette and stumbles over to Chou En-Lai to ask where the bathroom is. Chou En-Lai directs him up into Mao's giant cardboard head to use the toilet there. This is probably very symbolic of something, if only we could figure out what.
Mao and Madame Mao finish up having sex, and Mao stumbles off to get a blowjob from a Mao-ette who may or may not be Kissinger's Mao-ette. Chou En-Lai appears to be dying, which is a bit confusing because the Nixons are still in China talking earnestly about the war and even I know that Chou En-Lai would not die for another several years. Various chorus members come and lay flowers sadly around Chou En-Lai while the Mao-ette runs offstage and Mao, still singing about revolution, attempts to strangle Madame Mao to death. The murder attempt, however, just in the end leads to Mao and Madame Mao having more sex in a different position! Whatever works for them, I guess.
Nixon and Pat Nixon, by the way, are still sitting on different beds and politely reminiscing at each other.
Mao's cardboard head gets carted away, revealing what appears to be . . . dead Henry Kissinger! This is what happens when you use the toilet in the Chairman's head, I guess.
Mao and Madame Mao lie down and either go to sleep or die, we are not at all sure. Perhaps they are symbolically dead, except then poor dead Chou En-Lai sits up again and starts singing in distress to wonder whether anything they did had any point to it at all. Given everything he has just had to witness, I do not blame him.
In the end, I am left wondering:
a.) why all the Mao sex
b.) who actually died
c.) how anyone ever elected Nixon as President ever
d.) could the Met really not get any Asian actors for this Opera?
e.) why I do not know more about Chou En-Lai, who was clearly the sanest and most intelligent person onstage throughout the show!
f.) SERIOUSLY, WHY?
gramarye, who knows the most about the history and politics, and sandrylene, who knows the most about the music, have already written up excellent reviews, and before you go any further you should read them:Shannon the historian's review
Sandry the music major's review
But now that they have done that, I thought I might as well offer up my layman's-eye summary of the proceedings!
The short version: the experience was certainly interesting, but I think my main feelings throughout the show were a.) confusion and b.) GIANT CONTACT EMBARRASSMENT.
ACT I: The C-Span Opera
So Act I was probably the most comprehensible, being largely a pretty straightforward portrayal of Nixon's arrival and initial conversations with Mao - or at least it would have been comprehensible, if we were not seated so far away that we never had any idea who was talking at any given time. (Nixon, Kissinger and Chou En-Lai all sounded the same!)
We begin with a giant chorus of singing Communists, interrupted by the arrival of Nixon, Mrs. Nixon and Kissinger. They all sing in a dramatic operatic baritones about how their flight was long and they napped on the plane.
KISSINGER: Hey, Chou En-lai, my bro, it's good to see you after all the meetups we've been having around the globe -
CHOU EN-LAI: Dude, can we PLEASE not talk about how I am a cosmopolitan world traveler right in public in front of all my political rivals?
NIXON, MRS. NIXON AND KISSINGER: *awkward*
Then Nixon sings a solo about how excited he is about ALL THIS PUBLICITY and then they retire to their meeting with Mao and the Mao-ettes! (Mao's aides, who spend most of their time reinforcing Mao's dialogue with vigorous hand motions.) This landmark political meeting between two opposing economic forces begins with some manly banter about Kissinger's sex life.
NIXON: Yeah, Henry Kissinger is like a SEXY SECRET AGENT or something, he has a girl in every port! Dude gets around!
KISSINGER: I do, in fact, get around.
MAO: I also have been known to get around.
NIXON: Good for you, man!
CHOU EN-LAI: *diplomatic silence*
NIXON: does all this manly banter about sex mean we are bonding
KISSINGER: no sir, I do not think it means we are bonding
At the time I was puzzled by this! It was not until Act III that I realized this was in fact FORESHADOWING. More on this later.
Alas, after this jovial interlude, negotiations rapidly go downhill.
MAO: Let me quote my own epigrams at you about how our history -
NIXON: Yes, history is very important!
MAO: - is something we have to jettison. PROGRESS. REVOLUTION.
NIXON: . . . . Confucius?
KISSINGER, CHOU EN-LAI and BECCA: oh my god noooooooooooo
Contact embarrassment #1! Nixon proceeds to helplessly bleat "CONFUUUUCIUS" at Mao several more times while Mao sings foreshadowingly about the Cultural Revolution, the Mao-ettes nod sternly beside him, and Kissinger and Chou En-Lai facepalm. (At least, so far as we could tell from the nosebleed seats.) All throughout this, by the way, Mao is sort of staggering around the stage and looking like he's in the process of an asthma attack, and Nixon sort of keeps shuffling around awkwardly and looking like he's not sure whether to help him out or back away slowly.
The negotiations apparently are not going well.
However! Then we get an exciting BANQUET where everyone toasts each other and gets mildly trashed, so perhaps prospects have improved. The humongous Met chorus is clearly very excited because now they finally get to do something that vaguely resembles dancing, as opposed to politely waiting offstage while people sit in chairs and sing at each other. (Mostly what they get to do is just walking around in long lines and shaking people's hands, but it's still more than they have gotten to do so far!)
END OF ACT I.
Shannon takes this moment to helpfully explain to us the twenty political in-jokes in the scene between Nixon, Mao, Kissinger and Chou En-Lai that we did not understand. We are all very grateful for Shannon!
Act II: Pat Nixon is Very Confused
The beginning of Act II, in which Pat Nixon is sort of rushed around China, is probably the best part of the opera - poor Pat Nixon is very out-of-her-depth and confused, and her solos are actually really good, as are all the amazingly-portrayed awkward moments.
FACTORY WORKERS: Here is a present for you!
PAT NIXON: Oh lovely! Is it one of a kind?
FACTORY WORKERS: . . . . no, it is made in a factory.
TOUR GUIDES: Here is a model farm with a pig!
VERY ENTHUSIASTIC CHORAL SINGERS: Pigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpig!
PAT NIXON: . . . . . it's a great pig!
PAT NIXON: Oh what lovely monuments!
TOUR GUIDES: Yes, those monuments were built on the oppressed, crushed bodies of our ancestors.
PAT NIXON: . . . . oh.
Aaaand then we get to the second half of Act II.
In the second half of Act II, Madame Mao puts on a production of The Red Detachment of Women, one of the model ballets. In the ballet, a poor village girl is tormented by an evil landlord, and then she is rescued by the Communist regime. EXCEPT they have trouble getting to that point, because during the bit where the poor village girl is being balletically tortured, Pat Nixon FLIPS OUT and starts shrieking about how the evil overlord is hurting that poor girl, he's going to kill her, and runs up ON STAGE and starts cradling the ballerina in her arms. Please note that the whole thing is very clearly a ballet. There is no actual violence going on! THEY ARE WEARING TOE SHOES!
BECCA: omg noooooooooooooo PAT NIXON WHAT ARE YOU DOING
BALLERINA: . . . .
NIXON: . . . .
CHOU EN-LAI: . . .
PAT NIXON: SOMEONE GET THIS GIRL A DOCTOR.
BALLERINA: Um . . . I think you are kind of missing the point here . . .
MADAME MAO: Are you even kidding me?!
BECCA: This is the most contact embarrassment I have ever had.
We pause the whole play for Madame Mao to storm out, do a one-minute curtain-ripping dance of EXTREME FRUSTRATION, and then stomp back into the show. For just this one moment I sympathize with her with my whole heart.
And then Pat Nixon pops up in the middle of the corps de ballet holding a rifle, and Madame Mao sings a high-pitched aria of rage and screams at the ballerina to shoot somebody, and Chou En-Lai is looking extremely long-suffering and Nixon is looking very embarrassed and then I think we have a balletic representation of the Cultural Revolution that at this point in time has not actually happened yet and I have NO IDEA what is going on except that if this is the sort of thing that happens I would never ever want to go see a movie with Pat Nixon, ever.
END OF ACT II.
BECCA: What! What just happened! Are the Nixons just too stupid to tell the difference between REALITY and FICTION?
EVERYONE ELSE: . . . .
BECCA: . . . okay fine I see what you did there.
ACT III: And Then Mao Has Sex Everywhere
Our program informs us that in Act III, the Nixons will sing about their relationship and the Maos will dance together! We settle in, anticipating some nice political couples time.
Our program is . . . sort of right, and yet does not give us ANY IDEA of what we are in for. The curtain opens on a GIANT CARDBOARD HEAD OF MAO, in front of which are six beds. In the far left beds, the Nixons do in fact sing about their relationship! Mostly their song goes like this:
PAT NIXON: Tell me something you've never told me about the war.
NIXON: I will tell you about how I flipped burgers like an AWESOME AMERICAN.
PAT NIXON: Dear, you told me that already.
Meanwhile, in the next bed over, Chou En-Lai continues to look long-suffering. We all feel so, so bad for Chou En-Lai at this point. One bed over from him, Henry Kissinger is making time with one of the Mao-ettes.
BECCA: Oh, so THAT's what all that manly banter about Kissinger's sex life at the beginning was about!
Meanwhile, on the far right of the stage, Mao and Madame Mao sing about revolution and dance for about thirty seconds and then start 'dancing,' by which I mean having some athletic sex. Considering that just two acts ago Mao was tottering around like he was going to have a heart attack, I am pretty impressed by his fortitude!
Kissinger finishes up with the Mao-ette and stumbles over to Chou En-Lai to ask where the bathroom is. Chou En-Lai directs him up into Mao's giant cardboard head to use the toilet there. This is probably very symbolic of something, if only we could figure out what.
Mao and Madame Mao finish up having sex, and Mao stumbles off to get a blowjob from a Mao-ette who may or may not be Kissinger's Mao-ette. Chou En-Lai appears to be dying, which is a bit confusing because the Nixons are still in China talking earnestly about the war and even I know that Chou En-Lai would not die for another several years. Various chorus members come and lay flowers sadly around Chou En-Lai while the Mao-ette runs offstage and Mao, still singing about revolution, attempts to strangle Madame Mao to death. The murder attempt, however, just in the end leads to Mao and Madame Mao having more sex in a different position! Whatever works for them, I guess.
Nixon and Pat Nixon, by the way, are still sitting on different beds and politely reminiscing at each other.
Mao's cardboard head gets carted away, revealing what appears to be . . . dead Henry Kissinger! This is what happens when you use the toilet in the Chairman's head, I guess.
Mao and Madame Mao lie down and either go to sleep or die, we are not at all sure. Perhaps they are symbolically dead, except then poor dead Chou En-Lai sits up again and starts singing in distress to wonder whether anything they did had any point to it at all. Given everything he has just had to witness, I do not blame him.
In the end, I am left wondering:
a.) why all the Mao sex
b.) who actually died
c.) how anyone ever elected Nixon as President ever
d.) could the Met really not get any Asian actors for this Opera?
e.) why I do not know more about Chou En-Lai, who was clearly the sanest and most intelligent person onstage throughout the show!
f.) SERIOUSLY, WHY?
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:28 pm (UTC)d) oh God wait wait WAIT WAIT WAIT. Were all of the Chinese roles filled by white performers??
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:31 pm (UTC)Pssst, typo!
Totally agreed about point E! He comes off as spectacularly useful and sane by comparison, and I would totally like to know more.
Also, I so love how you phrase things. :D You are my favourite, dare I say, the *best* Becca. <3
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:37 pm (UTC)b) All except Madame Mao, who was a Korean soprano! (None of which I realized until after the opera was over, we were too far away to make it out.) And - on the one hand, I don't know how filling out an opera's cast works, and I can very easily see why Chinese opera singers might be reluctant to play Mao or Chou En-Lai in this play, and why it might be tactless to try and recruit them (and likewise tactless to recruit Japanese or Korean singers, although they did it for Madame Mao.)
And yet, ON THE OTHER HAND.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:40 pm (UTC)I think I should politely refute the 'best' statement as there are a lot of excellent Beccas out there! But I am glad to be your favorite. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:46 pm (UTC)See also the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chinese_opera_singers
Of those seven, not all are still *living* or sopranos.
Randomly, while I'm thinking about it.
Date: 2011-03-02 06:05 pm (UTC)If I recall rightly, there was a throwaway line in the first part of Act I where Nixon makes a comment about it being an election year (1972), and Chou En-Lai's like, 'Dude, even I blush to think about how you've been screwing over your political opponents, and I'm supposed to be propping up a dictatorial regime here.'
(More of my thoughts on this excellent and disturbingly accurate review to come!)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:05 pm (UTC)I am sad I missed it, yet at the time, comforted by I missed another show to add to my "wtf new york theatre?!?!" card.
We need to work out when we are going to see How to Succeed in Business!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:05 pm (UTC)Re: Randomly, while I'm thinking about it.
Date: 2011-03-02 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:16 pm (UTC)True, but I don't think that list is inclusive of Chinese-American opera singers, is it?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:46 pm (UTC)I'm all curious now, and so have been looking through this:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/about/whoweare/detail.aspx?id=2
Seems like there are actually two sopranos in their roster who are of Chinese descent:
Ying Huang (http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=2040&type=1)
and
Lei Xu (http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=7336&type=1)
I have yet to find any amongst the men.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 06:56 pm (UTC)Yijie Shi (http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=7361&type=1) and Shenyang (http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=7026&type=1) (but not sure that Bass Baritone voice part actually makes that a fit - Braun and Brubaker are a Tenor and a Baritone, so I'm assuming that's what those parts were originally written for, and were they not adapted.)
This is, of course, assuming any of these people were interested in the roles, and of course there's the possibility of visiting artists, I guess, but I'm still not sure how large the pool of potential people is here.
I'm being completely unscientific in my approach, as well, could be missing people... but I guess I don't think it's far-fetched that the available people to fill the roles didn't actually work in a true to life cultural fit.
Re: Randomly, while I'm thinking about it.
Date: 2011-03-02 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 07:23 pm (UTC)Re: Randomly, while I'm thinking about it.
Date: 2011-03-02 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 07:41 pm (UTC)Still. It would be really nice if the entire world of art stepped a little bit away from the old world western style of everything and actually included more of any other cultural anything. I mean in the traditional classical world we have like, a handful of options for non-caucasian composers (Asian composers I can think of offhand: Takemitsu. That's it.), but ye gods, the world of music as art is chuck full of white guys and not so full of much of anything else. Trying to think of female composers is even difficult. I think I have *two*. /:
I guess I feel like... why is modern classical still sort of following in the footsteps of Europe? And if it's still so non-inclusive of pretty much everyone ever, why don't high institutions of art include non-"classical" stuff in them more often?
Seems like that might also combat the whole stereotypical issue of high music being full of very old people and no one else.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 07:51 pm (UTC)And I definitely don't think that the overabundance of white dudes involved in this particular production is an isolated incident in classical music - although for obvious reasons it was pretty noticeable and egregious here.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 06:02 am (UTC)1) WHAT? HOW DO I NOT KNOW THIS EXISTS?
2) HOW DO I NOT KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS PART OF THE MOTHERLAND'S HISTORY IN ORDER TO BETTER APPRECIATE THIS? (My bestie wrote her high-school junior thesis on it, though. Maybe she would appreciate it.)
3) Oh, Zhou Enlai. Yeah, he's a big deal in the Chinese schoolbooks. =)
4) MOAR THINGS but right now I'm tired.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 06:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 06:04 am (UTC)You would be embarrassed. Often I am embarrassed.
My school is really fucking weird sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 12:18 am (UTC)Becca, HOW DO YOU FIND THESE THINGS?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 05:36 am (UTC)I have to wonder if the writers were influenced by some of the more recent, controversial (and by that I mean banned) Chinese fiction, which has topics like COPIOUS CULTURAL REVOLUTION SEX.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 05:54 am (UTC)The theory we were tossing around after the production is that the original opera did not, in fact, involve all the COPIOUS CULTURAL REVOLUTION SEX (since none of it is in the libretto! or the description!), and the directors of the new production decided to incorporate it based on recent controversial fiction and memoirs to make it EDGIER. Interesting in theory! CONFUSING IN PRACTICE.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 10:13 pm (UTC)This sounds like a reasonable theory to me! The practice of the theory sounds...somewhat less reasonable.