- Muslim women break taboos navigating east London's waterways
- Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom
- More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
- Death toll from Hurricane John hits eight in Mexico
- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Boeing strike grinds on as latest talks fail to reach agreement
- Iran 'news' sites, hackers target Trump ahead of US election
- US ports brace for potential dockworkers strike
- Japan's speedy, spotless Shinkansen bullet trains turn 60
- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
- Europe en route for Moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
- Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky Sun flypast
- Argentina judge orders dictionary to delete pejorative definition of 'Jewish'
- Global stocks rise on rate hopes, Beijing stimulus
- S.African woman turns 118, among the oldest in the world
- UK clears $4 bn AI partnership between Amazon, Anthropic
- Barca fans barred from Champions League away game over racist banner
- Chinese stocks extend surge, Europe higher on Beijing stimulus
- Pope says Church must 'seek forgiveness' for child sexual abuse
- China caps week of 'bazooka' stimulus for ailing economy with rate cut
- Cuts, cash, credit: China bids to jumpstart flagging economy
- France's debt weighs heavier ahead of budget debate
- Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
- Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute
- 'Broken' news industry faces uncertain future
- On remote Greek island, migratory birds offer climate clues
- Taken from mother by nuns, victim seeks answers as pope visits Belgium
- China cuts amount banks hold in reserve to boost lending
- Hong Kong, Shanghai extend surge as China optimism boosts markets
- Vietnam president reiterates support for Cuba during official visit
- Drought reduces Amazon River in Colombia by as much as 90%: report
- Stay or go? Pacific Islanders face climate's grim choice
- Florida bracing for 'unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene
- Poverty rises to over 52 percent in Milei's Argentina
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala Harris
- Champagne houses abuzz over English sparkling wine
- Macron, Trudeau pledge to work for 'decarbonized' economies
- Hurricanes, storms, typhoons... Is September wetter than usual?
- China stimulus, tech optimism boost stock markets
- 'Unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene races towards Florida
- Macron meets Trudeau in Canada as both face political setbacks
- South Korea surges in UN innovation index
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala
- Floods threaten Niger's historic 'gateway to the desert'
'Nixon in China': an opera with fresh relevance
Opera rarely feels like a topical medium but modern classic "Nixon in China" is growing in popularity and offering a pointed reminder of how much geopolitics has shifted in the past 50 years.
It recounts the historic moment in 1972 when US president Richard Nixon travelled to Beijing and established diplomatic ties with Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
The irreverent opera received mixed reviews when first performed in 1987 but has since become a beloved part of the canon in the United States.
It is increasingly a hit abroad, playing in at least five European opera houses this year.
It carries a new poignancy at a time of growing East-West tensions.
An illustrious Paris production opens on Saturday in the week that Chinese President Xi Jinping held a state visit to Moscow.
"We take it seriously right now because China and the US are in the news every day, and in a way that kind of highlights the fragility of world peace," said Renee Fleming, the superstar soprano who plays Nixon's wife in the Paris production.
She is disheartened by current affairs, having always been "tremendously welcomed" in China and Russia.
"This is a time where I'm thinking please hold it together. Let's everybody calm down and resume the fantastic relationship -- not without challenges... but it's still worth keeping the peace," she told AFP.
- No more 'yellowface' -
One big change these days -- insisted upon by composer John Adams -- is that companies use Asian singers for the Chinese roles.
Scottish Opera was accused of "yellowface" in 2021 for staging the play with white actors, as was previously typical.
"It's right that now, when things are so sensitive, we work hard to find Asian singers," Adams, 76, told AFP.
"But ultimately I want to believe that it doesn't matter."
The play was controversial for different reasons when it first opened.
"Opera was always considered to be about Greek myths or Norse gods or melodrama like Puccini," Adams recalled.
"But I thought this subject matter was something that opera could treat very well, because... it's about the collision of the two main philosophies of how life should be lived."
The Paris production uses elaborate and symbolic staging, such as the choir split into opposing table tennis teams, referencing the "ping-pong diplomacy" that helped thaw relations at the time.
It does not shy away from criticism of Mao's regime, with an underground prison revealed beneath the library where the politicians are meeting and a mini-documentary, screened halfway through, about the horrific repression of Chinese musicians during the Cultural Revolution.
But Xiaomeng Zhang, who plays the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, told AFP the opera was above all "a stark reminder... that making peace, not war, despite ideological and political differences, is not only a strategical choice but also a moral choice".
A.Mykhailo--CPN