The original charge of Nixon in China was marked by the surprising and sympathetic treatment of the central characters, with Kissinger and the Madame providing some comic relief. In the current ...

“Nixon in China,” composed by John Adams and directed by Peter Sellars, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, was inspired by President Richard M. Nixon’s epoch-making 1972 trip to China.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon made the historic journey to meet Chinese leader Mao Zedong in part paved by a U.S. pingpong delegation that traveled to Beijing a year earlier.

"Nixon in China" was the first modern opera to study an American president - and is being resurrected at a time when the U.S. grapples with what presidency means.