Xiaomeng Zhang

Der Ring des Nibelungen in a production of the Zürich opera house, recorded 2024. "Dramatic music-making at its finest". In the hands of General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda and Stage Director Andreas Homoki, Wagner's myth is represented as "a dysfunctional family of gods" (The Independent) in a polished yet unpretentious production that underscores the humanity of the characters, who are performed by the same exceptional cast of singers across all four operas.

In February 1972, the American president Richard Nixon went to China to meet Mao Zedong. In the context of the war in Vietnam and the cold war, this encounter marked a turning point in Chinese‑American relations. John Adams, a major musical figure of the last forty years, made this event of contemporary history the subject of his first opera. Nixon in China tackles the political thaw instigated by ping-pong diplomacy, begun by the invitation of the American table tennis players by their Chinese counterparts, one year before the presidential visit. A mesmerising work in which the pulsations and repetitions typical of minimalism are combined with melodic lines of great lyricism. For its entry into the Paris Opera repertoire, this work has been entrusted to the director Valentina Carrasco, who underlines the importance and the mediating power of Chinese national sport in history.