“Insightful and sometimes contradictory imagistic philosophy offered by Mao . . . the American delegation is completely outgunned, impotent to forge a straightforward exchange of intention, let alone any kind of detente.”

There is nothing about Alice Goodman’s libretto which is as straightforward as its lines sometimes appear. Goodman deftly captures the disparate feelings and ideologies of those days now 50 years past, but more profoundly, builds a poetry of juxtaposition and ironyA "deflection of expectation," where words, situation, or pe... More that reveals truths of naivete and power, of nostalgia and morality. At the end, it is only the Chairman who dances, unassailed.

Long on lists of one of the greatest librettos in opera, I can only agree: the politicians dine and maneuver, one wife stages plays and the other passes through them unaware, Kissinger develops a headache, and the Chorus offers its testaments to subjugation and destiny. What is clear in the both insightful and sometimes contradictory imagistic philosophy offered by Mao is that the American delegation is completely outgunned, impotent to forge a straightforward exchange of intention, let alone any kind of detente.

Don’t go into the opera expecting a traditional plot; Goodman follows the story of an expected diplomatic visit which begins with idealism and promises yet ends in uncertainty. Accompanied by the score by Adams, at once a Phillip Glass-like bombast of disjointedness and a reflective, cyclic machine of laboring inevitability, the opera complete is mesmerizing spectacle and sobering politics.

I have little doubt that once I find the opera staged and add the choreography, this will be a 5-star creation.