Nixon in China

Is there a future - or even a present - for opera? I thought not, but seeing Nixon in China, with music by John Adams and words by Alice Goodman, based on an idea by Peter Sellars, made me think otherwise. Adams is a composer of genius but his music seems perfectly suited to the genre - it foregoes the kitsch lyricism of arias for witty quotes, does not eschew the necessary grandeur for choruses, sustains interest without fatigue for three hours, is erudite but accessible, grave when needed, light and playful if possible. Maybe opera is not suitable anymore to treat drama, but seems remarkable apposite for epics.

Cheap thrills

World War II stories provide inexhaustible thrills. Wartime Lies is the story of a rich jewish family - an aunt and her nephew - who successfully hide from the nazis in Poland between 1941 and 1945. Louis Begley, the author, who became a successful New York lawyer, draws on his childhood recollections to present this unforgettable portrait of aunt Tania, who draws on all her resources of cunning, beauty, money, attentiveness, wit, and courage to survive the war and protect her nephew, the somewhat hapless narrator of the story. We know the horrors of the war, but this is about narrow escapes, lying low, dissembling. After reading this book it becomes much easier to understand the terrible guilt felt by the survivors, even those who have nothing to reproach themselves with other than an irrepressible will to live.