“Nixon in China” by John Adams as an example of post-modern opera

Abstract

The article is devoted to the opera “Nixon in China” by the American postminimalist John Adams. The article analyzes the libretto of the opera, created by the writer Alice Guzman, from the standpoint of the postmodern aesthetics. It is in literature that the features of postmodernism are most vividly and characteristically manifested, and in opera, the literary basis constitutes the semantic core and is the bearer of the most characteristic stylistic features. This is the case with Nixon in China. Before us is an example of a rare genre offshoot in relation to works for musical theater: political opera. Applying the methodology of interdisciplinary analysis of the primary literary source, with its inherent features of postmodern narration: nonlinearity, fragmentation, anti-narrativeness, the author comes to the conclusion that “Nixon in China” demonstrates an example of postmodernist opera. It is in literature that the features of postmodernism are most vividly and characteristically manifested, and in opera, the literary basis constitutes the semantic core and is the bearer of the most characteristic stylistic features. This is the case with Nixon in China. Before us is an example of a rare genre offshoot in relation to works for musical theater: political opera. Applying the methodology of interdisciplinary analysis of the primary literary source, with its inherent features of postmodern storytelling: nonlinearity, fragmentation, anti-narrative, the author comes to the conclusion that “Nixon in China” demonstrates a model of postmodern opera.