Kevin Jackson
Aria Rage
History Is Our Mother: Three Libretti
By Alice Goodman
NYRB Classics 202pp £9.99 order from our bookshop
In the late 1980s, I went to the Edinburgh Festival for the UK premiere of Nixon in China, a new opera by the American composer John Adams, with a libretto by the American poet Alice Goodman. I knew the music of John Adams only slightly, from the BBC, and the poems of Alice Goodman not at all. About the only knowledge I brought with me was that this work tackled the unlikely subject of a state visit to Beijing by President Nixon in 1972.
It was a coup de foudre. I loved the music from the very first notes of the stately, melancholic overture. Then the chorus, representing hundreds of Chinese troops, began to sing:
Soldiers of heaven hold the sky
The morning breaks and shadows fly…
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There is a chilling moment as he describes a gun hovering over him as its holder tries to make up his mind as to whether Lançon is dead or alive.'
Andrew Hussey reviews Philippe Lançon's extraordinary first-hand account of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
http://ow.ly/3M8E50xqqrE
Tales from the New Bedlam: my piece on Tim Etchells' ENDLAND in the current Literary Review https://literaryreview.co.uk/tales-from-the-new-bedlam via @Lit_Review There's a paywall but the first bit's free . . .
Here's my Christmas children's book round up for @Lit_Review featuring @TheSallyGardner @FrancesHardinge @hilary_mckay @FisherAuthor Alison Moore @chrisriddell50 Ben Manley @emmachichesterc https://literaryreview.co.uk/shipwrecks-spectres