Created in 1987, fifteen years after the historic visit of the American president to China, this opera had a controversial beginning before becoming a classic in the United States.

Thirty-six years later, he has appeared at least five opera houses in Europe, where he is less known.

"We take it seriously nowadays, especially since we talk about China and the United States on the news every day, a sign of the fragility of world peace," Renée Fleming, one of America's most famous sopranos, told AFP.

Chinese President Mao Zedong and US President Richard Nixon shake hands after their meeting on February 22, 1972 in Beijing © / AFP/Archives

The star plays for the first time the role of Pat Nixon, the wife of the president (she is dressed on stage in a red coat, similar to the famous one worn by the First Lady during the visit).

At his side, his compatriot, baritone Thomas Hampson who plays a Nixon more real than life.

The metaphor of ping-pong

At the pre-general on Monday – which coincided with the day of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow – Alice Goodman's libretto resonated strangely with current events.

"Your outstretched hand, the signals that Russia is giving us, all this seems ambiguous," sings the character of Zhou Enlai (Chinese premier under Mao Tse-tung) to Nixon who calls for peace.

US President Richard Nixon (L) and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai raise a toast during a banquet on February 21, 1972 in Beijing © - / AFP/Archives

"This opera resonates as a reminder of the need for diplomacy between powers in this time of uncertainty," baritone Xiaomeng Zhang, who plays Zhou Enlai, told AFP.

Inspired by the diplomacy of ping-pong, these exchanges of American and Chinese players in the 1970s, the Argentine director Valentina Carrasco transforms the artists of the choir of the Opera into table tennis players or throwing balls at each other on both sides of the stands.

"It's reminiscent of the Cold War, a bipolar world, with a net in the middle and both sides blaming each other," Carrasco said.

More than 30 years after Peter Sellars' first staging, "we can afford to make a less literal and more symbolic staging," she adds.

Among the other symbols: the American eagle and the Chinese dragon, the Red Book, the uniforms of the Red Guards, but also the repression in China, with a striking painting where the tray is raised to show, as in an underground prison, scenes of censorship of books and beaten inmates.

On a large screen, many photos of the visit appear, as well as a mini-documentary on the repression of musicians who played Western music at the time of the Cultural Revolution.

Beyond the staging, what does the composer think today of his sumptuous music?

US President Richard Nixon (2nd d) and his wife Patricia (r) visit the Great Wall, February 24, 1972 north of Beijing © - / XINHUA / AFP / Archives

"I created this opera so long ago that I feel like someone else wrote it," joked John Adams, 76, reached by phone from Paris.

It recalls the "very controversial" beginnings of opera, one of the few to deal with contemporary politics. "Operas have always been about Greek myths, Norse gods or melodramas like Puccini's works," he explains. But the attitude of the public "changes with time and makes them appreciate the work".

If he confides not "having the hand" on the various stagings, he insisted that the singers interpreting the Chinese are of Asian origin (John Matthew Myers for Mao, Kathleen Kim for Mrs. Mao, etc.).

In 2021, a controversy had erupted around a production in Scotland accused of "yellowface" (grimage in yellow).

© 2023 AFP