Nixon in China

Nixon in China, opera in three acts by John Adams (with an English libretto by Alice Goodman), which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987. The first of Adams’s many operas, Nixon in China broke new ground with its effective use of a contemporary event as the subject of an opera.

Background and context

After reading the memoirs of Henry Kissinger, who had served as both national security adviser and secretary of state under U.S. President Richard Nixon, stage director Peter Sellars suggested to Adams that he compose an opera based on Nixon’s historic visit to China. Adams had not written an opera up to that point, and he rejected the notion. However, he changed his mind more than a year later when he realized that the subject could be approached as a human drama as much as a political one.

The story was set in February 1972, during the trip that Nixon undertook with his wife, Pat, and with Kissinger, then Nixon’s national security adviser. As much as politics and human nature drive the tale, the opera also deals with the influence of the media. In one of the opera’s most-striking scenes—taken straight from the front page of U.S. newspapers—Nixon and his wife exit Air Force One, and the president raises his arms in his iconic “V-for-Victory” sign. Many of the ensuing scenes also reflect actual events, including Mao’s secretaries repeating Mao’s every word in strongly poetic terms and the formal banquet at which the main participants toast each other. The opera also includes Pat Nixon’s tour of the region, a tour that focused on things of which the Chinese leaders were especially proud.

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Musically, the score blends the best features of Adams’s music. Driving minimalistic riffs alternate with lyrically flowing melodies and passages of forceful energy. Rich harmonies sometimes recall the flavour of Richard Strauss’s operas written 90 years earlier. More unusually, Adams crafted a scene virtually without precedent: a quartet for his four male politicians, several minutes of ensemble without a note for soprano or mezzo.

Each of the principal characters—both leaders and their wives, as well as Zhou Enlai—sing contemplative arias. That the music of Jiang Qing (Madame Mao) is more strident than that of Pat Nixon may reveal Adams’s perceptions of each but also reflects how the two were portrayed by the press. Nixon himself is presented as a heroic dreamer.

Cast and vocal parts

• Zhou Enlai (baritone)
• Richard Nixon (baritone)
• Henry Kissinger (bass-baritone)
• Nancy Tang, First Secretary (mezzo-soprano)
• Second Secretary (mezzo-soprano)
• Third Secretary (mezzo-soprano)
• Mao Zedong (tenor)
• Pat Nixon (soprano)
• Jiang Qing, Madame Mao (coloratura soprano)

Setting and story summary

Nixon in China is set in Beijing in 1972.

Act I

At an airfield outside Beijing, contingents of the Chinese military assemble to receive Air Force One. They recite Mao Zedong’s “Three Main Rules of Discipline” and “Eight Points of Attention.” Premier Zhou Enlai arrives with government officials. Air Force One taxis into view, and President Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon disembark. Greetings are exchanged, and Nixon sings of the excitement of this occasion. Later Nixon and Henry Kissinger meet with Mao, who is attended by three secretaries and Zhou Enlai. The secretaries repeat and expand upon Mao’s every word, not bothering to translate very closely. A grand banquet is given that evening, with the principal figures exchanging toasts and speaking of their hopes.

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