Deutsche Oper Berlin: Urmelchen Mao and Putin Hitler do the honors

The ideas of the 19th century and their implementation in the 20th – who doesn’t know them? Capitalism, fascism, communism, abstract expressionism, new music and directing theater. With an opera in 1987, composer John Adams reminded us that modernity is a thing of the past. He wrote a musical play about the 37th US President’s first state visit to China and had “Tricky Dick” ramble on pompously like Mao. So it’s all hot air at the expense of millions. The masses in the grave, the ideas in orbit. Last Saturday was the premiere of “Nixon in China” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Wanting to be funny is such a thing in Berlin. Since 2012, the capital has settled on Barrie Kosky’s Australian slapstick as the lowest common denominator of the apolitical. For the sake of heavenly peace. It is important to keep anything remotely humorous away from Kosky as much as possible. He never thought of anything more than a drag show: neither about Brecht and Weill nor about Bernstein. He planted the hollowest “Mahagonny” production of the young decade in the Komische Oper. During “Candide” (already lame) lame lederhosen jumped.

Only the musical professional Stefan Huber († 2023) showed the high culture bunglers how it’s done in Dostal’s “Clivia” in 2014, put the Pfister siblings in their fumbles and let them play with timing. Timing is funny. Costumes and acting are not funny. Every clown knows this, from Oleg Popov to Jerry Lewis.

At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the director duo Hauen und Stechen, alias Franziska Kronfoth and Julia Lwowski, are now staging hot air at the expense of millions. There’s a lot of dressing up and fiddling to deal with. There are women dressed as hand grenades shaking their heads next to cowgirls and Red Army soldiers and Vienna sausages. A Hitler head comes onto the stage and, to correctly classify German history, an AI-generated Putin Hitler comes onto the screen. Mao is a urchin from the ice. A storm trooper of skull-snappies murders Richard Nixon in an alien dick landscape. In between show sequences, animations and close-ups.

What is all this about? Ms. Kronfoth explains it to you in the program: “When the little thing is made big with the help of the camera, a productive irritation arises. Because with this intimacy we have no documentary interest, but rather assert a new reality – cheat creatively in order to tease out new truths.” Mao couldn’t have written it more beautifully.

John Adams composed what was definitely the prettiest medley of his life with “Nixon in China”. In addition to the very digestible minimal music, comparable to the approaches of his colleague Steve Reich, you can always hear Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Hollywood soundtracks shimmering through. The crowd scenes are as chaotic as they’ve ever been with Hans Werner Henze (who, however, had far better librettists). In addition, maximum music such as Wagner and Strauss is imitated in places.

The orchestra under Daniel Carter is overwhelmed at the Deutsche Oper; after all, the constant sensory overload on stage does not allow for any emotional approaches. Thomas Lehman is disgusted by his role and is allowed to constantly fire the Nixon-typical V-hand signals, certain of victory. Heidi Stober as Pat Nixon shines with a permanent grin. Kyle Miller as Prime Minister Chu En Lai and Ya-Chung Huang as Mao Tse-tung skillfully switch between exaggerating Chinese poetry and exaggerating exaggeration.

With a break, the continuous ironization of all irony lasts three and a half hours. Anyone who has been introduced before will need at least four and a half beers afterwards. And two shots. This costs at least 30 euros in compensation at the opera house. Without any humor or teasing, the constant self-important hustle and bustle on stage is tiring to the point of anger. After the curtain call, the audience in the hall thanked them with mild West Berlin boos. The director can and wants to be sure in any case: a complete success.

»We have repeatedly asked ourselves how we deal with the historical heavyweights in this work and how much space and voice we can and want to give them. Their presence is put into perspective by the presence of our performers, because they mean that there are other important, strong roles and playing styles on stage.« (Franziska Kronfoth)

Incidentally, Adam’s follow-up work, “The Death of Klinghoffer,” would be a serious challenge for Berlin in terms of content. The opera deals with the Middle East conflict, more specifically with the hijacking of the cruise ship “Achille Lauro” in 1985. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) murdered a 69-year-old Jew in a wheelchair. The director would have to be able to answer the following question: What is chatter in the face of Sonnenallee?

Next performances: June 28th, July 4th and 10th

www.deutscheoperberlin.de

Without any humor or teasing, the constant self-important hustle and bustle on stage is tiring to the point of anger.

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