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.
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
