John Adams: Nixon in China Backdrop Blur
John Adams: Nixon in China Poster
4.0 2h 45m

John Adams: Nixon in China

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.

Top Cast

  • Thomas Hampson

    Thomas Hampson

    Richard Nixon

  • Renée Fleming

    Renée Fleming

    Pat Nixon

  • Xiaomeng Zhang

    Xiaomeng Zhang

    Chou En-Lai

  • John Matthew Myers

    John Matthew Myers

    Mao Zedong

  • Joshua Bloom

    Joshua Bloom

    Henry Kissinger

  • Kathleen Kim

    Kathleen Kim

    Chiang Ch’ing

  • Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris

    Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris

    Self - Orchestra

  • Gustavo Dudamel

    Gustavo Dudamel

    Self - Conductor

Overview

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.

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