I was totally jonesing to catch “Nixon in China” in simulcast at Palo Alto Square the other day. Months ago I was checking it out in context of Dao Strom’s work, telling the story of the Vietnamese diaspora with music and song. I borrowed the cd of “NIC” from Palo Alto library and was impressed by the essay on librettist Alice Goodman. When I heard it was being remounted in New York, with John Adams conducting, Peter Sellars directing and choreography by Mark Morris, I was thrilled. I would say that the concept of simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera is pretty decent; the film event carries about a tenth of the impact of an actual opera, but it is priced accordingly.

That is my (illegal) picture of John Adams on screen. Here is a link to the Times coverage (I am proud to have the actual clippings).

John Adams at Nixon in China simulcast

edit to add, August 11, 2011, about six months later: I was delayed last week at the Santa Fe airport for about six hours with a group of opera buffs including former Hollywood casting director Patricia Rose Mock (“Heaven Can Wait” “Twilight Zone”) and the opera singer Alexandra “Lexi” LoBianco, who had sang the lead at Palo Alto’s West Bay Opera “Turandot.” I am scheduled to interview Lexi soon for my other blog-job, Palo Alto Patch. Ms. Mock (who I called “Ms. Bond” for the first four of those six hours — she could have been a Bond Girl in her day) said she enjoyed “The Last Savage” best of what she had seen in New Mexico. I sang “America The Beautiful” as a way to goad Lexi into singing a bit for us. She eventually capitulated.

Lexi LoBianco in Santa Fe airport

She issued an impressive bit of squeaks and blurts; being an airport, no glass was shattered. High winds indeed.