Opera: Nixon in China

In February 1972, US President Richard Nixon travelled to China to meet Mao Zedong. Against the electric backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Cold War, this rapprochement marked a turning point in Sino-American relations. A major figure in contemporary music, John Adams used this event as the subject of his first opera. A political and human drama, Nixon in China deals with the political thaw fostered by the 'ping-pong diplomacy' that resulted from the invitation of American table tennis players by their Chinese counterparts a year before their president's trip. A heady score, where the pulsations and repetitions typical of musical minimalism intermingle with melodic lines of great lyricism.