This opera has captivated all my musical attention for a good part of this year. I started listening to it after accidently finding it on YouTube during a binge of Glass's opera Akhnaten and realised that there were more minimalist operas other than Akhnaten. Nixon in China does something that most operas just cannot do for me: keep my attention span. The libretto is actually well written, and the arias make sense to the story without dragging the runtime. It's excellent English-language opera in the 20th century that appeals to a wide audience. That's its best feature, by the way. The fact is that most people that enjoy classical music will enjoy this opera. This is solely due to its strong roots in tonality. Composers, you don't need to write in an atonal stream for your opera to be taken seriously. Atonal music sucks.
The music in Nixon in China is what keeps making me come back. As opposed to traditional composers writing harmonically focused music, Adams takes rhythm and meter to the foreground and focuses on it, slowing the harmonic rhythm that traditional composers would use to drive interest in their music. It's hard to count how many times I've listened to this opera. There's always something new to discover on every listen through. How he sets the text in such thoughtful word painting that each word makes total sense in the context of the music, even when he's working with the most basic harmonies and melody. How he creates form with just two or three chords and the audience can still organize the songs in their head on their first listen through. Adams creates an atmosphere to his music that is easy to follow, easy to enjoy, and honestly, easy to analyse. And it sounds so good.
It's hard to put how good this opera is into such little words. In the next couple of weeks, I will analyse various sections of Nixon in China that exemplifies the style and character that Adams writes in. Namely, the aria "I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung", and how melody contrasts with form and harmony to avoid monotony in minimalism, the opera in an opera, and how Adams changes how he composes for the "communist/foreign" work, and The Chairman Dances, which although not from the opera itself, are pieces in the same style. The orchestration of The Chairman Dances is phenomenal.
Adams shows that modern tonal operas lead the field (along with Glass) with minimalism, and not whatever atonal composers are doing. At least that's my most honest opinion. I hope you will join me in finding great joy listening to Adams' most popular opera.