John Adams: Nixon in China

Overview

John Adams’s groundbreaking work vividly brings to life US President Nixon’s 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China. Peter Sellars’s Metropolitan Opera production, based on his 1987 world-premiere staging, features choreography by Mark Morris and stars James Maddalena as Nixon, Robert Brubaker as Chairman Mao, Janis Kelly as First Lady Pat Nixon, Russell Braun as Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, and Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch’ing, Mao’s wife. From the pomp of the public displays to the intimacy of the protagonists most private moments, Adams, Sellars and librettist Alice Goodman reveal the real characters behind the headlines in this landmark American opera.

Keywords

Cast

James Maddalena

Richard Nixon

Robert Brubaker

Mao Tse-tung

Janis Kelly

Pat Nixon

Kathleen Kim

Chiang Ch’ing

Richard Paul Fink

Henry Kissinger

Russell Braun

Chou En-Lai

Ginger Costa-Jackson

First Secretary to Mao

Teresa S. Herold

Second Secretary to Mao

Tamara Mumford

Third Secretary to Mao

Haruno Yamazaki

Solo Dancer