Met: Live in HD - Nixon in China

I have to admit, when I was setting up the ticket sales for this year's Met: Live in HD series, the title of this opera jumped out at me.  When going through the list you see titles such as "Die Walkure", "Don Carlo", "Don Pasquale", "Capriccio" and so on and then come to "Nixon in China", it takes you a bit by surprise.  At least it did me.

During a recent panel on the new opera at the Met (described on the New York Times ArtsBeat Blog), the composer and other key figures in the development of the opera discussed their feelings about the late President and how this opera has been received.  One bit from the article encourages me to watch the performance when we show it on the 12th of February.

But as Mr. Adams worked on the opera in the late 1980s, he said, he grew to realize that Nixon was an “interesting character,” a complicated man who could not always control his emotions, unlike those two masters of self-control Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

 Sounds like it should be a performance that will be both entertaining and educational, not only about this particular moment in time, but also in the universal themes embodied in that moment.

Preview of "Nixon in China" from the Metropolitan Opera.

Read more about this opera HERE at the Metropolitan's website.