John Adams
Nixon in China

79177

Track Listing

Click tracks with speaker icon to listen

1.01	Act I, Scene 1: Beginning	2:53
1.02	Act I, Scene 1: "Soldiers of heaven hold the sky"	2:48
1.03	Act I, Scene 1: "The people are the heroes now"	2:49
1.04	Act I, Scene 1: Landing of the Spirit of '76	2:28
1.05	Act I, Scene 1: "Your flight was smooth, I hope?"	1:19
1.06	Act I, Scene 1: "News has a kind of mystery"	7:03
1.07	Act I, Scene 2: Beginning	4:05
1.08	Act I, Scene 2: "You know we'll meet with you confrere The Democratic candidate If he should win"	2:23
1.09	Act I, Scene 2: "You've said that there's a certain well-known tree"	2:44
1.10	Act I, Scene 2: "Founders come first, then profiteers."	6:53
1.11	Act I, Scene 2: "We no longer need Confucius."	3:03
1.12	Act I, Scene 2: "Like the Ming Tombs."	5:18
1.13	Act I, Scene 3: Beginning	6:14
1.14	Act I, Scene 3: "Ladies and gentlemen, Comrades and friends,"	6:37
1.15	Act I, Scene 3: "Mr. Premier, distinguished guests," (listen to full-length track)	2:37
1.16	Act I, Scene 3: Cheers	3:45
2.01	Act II, Scene 1: Beginning	3:34
2.02	Act II, Scene 1: "Look down at the earth,"	5:26
2.03	Act II, Scene 1: "This is prophetic!"	8:32
2.04	Act II, Scene 1: "At last the weather's warming up."	3:03
2.05	Act II, Scene 2: Beginning	2:54
2.06	Act II, Scene 2: "Oh what a day I thought I'd die!"	4:48
2.07	Act II, Scene 2: "Whip her to death!"	2:29
2.08	Act II, Scene 2: Tropical Storm	4:45
2.09	Act II, Scene 2: "Flesh rebels"	3:08
2.10	Act II, Scene 2: "I have my brief"	1:05
2.11	Act II, Scene 2: "It seems so strange"	2:52
2.12	Act II, Scene 2: "I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung"	6:30
3.01	Act III: Beginning	1:10
3.02	Act III: "Some men you cannot satisfy."	3:17
3.03	Act III: "I am no one."	4:02
3.04	Act III: The Maos dance	2:00
3.05	Act III: "Sitting around the radio"	1:17
3.06	Act III: "Let us examine what you did."	2:43
3.07	Act III: "When I woke up I dinly realized the Jap Bombers had given us a miss-"	1:21
3.08	Act III: "I have no offspring."	1:54
3.09	Act III: "I can keep still,"	2:12
3.10	Act III: "After that the sweat had soaked my uniform"	2:28
3.11	Act III: "Peking watches the stars,"	2:43
3.12	Act III: "You won at poker."	3:14
3.13	Act III: Act III: "I am old and I cannot sleep	4:24

News & Reviews

Monday, November 17, 2008

Boston Globe: John Adams "Hallelujah Junction" Offers Guide to Artistic Success with Integrity

The Met premiere production of John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic concluded last Thursday; this weekend, the Atlanta Symphony will give a staged production of the piece. Tonight, the composer is at Harvard to lead a performance of The Wound-Dresser, followed by a discussion. The Boston Globe talks with the composer about this "particularly rich time" in his life, as "one of America's busiest and most original composers" and features a review of Adams's memoir, Hallelujah Junction, that concludes: "[T]his is a book that any aspiring artist, in any medium, should read as a kind of how-to guide to achieving artistic success without losing integrity, something that seems to many young artists today nearly impossible. In fact, it is a book for anyone who wants to create something—including a self."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Independent (UK): John Adams's "Engaging" Memoir Shows Composer's "Rare Precision"

John Adams's memoir, Hallelujah Junction, is now available in the UK. The Independent calls it "engaging" and says that like Adams's musical work of the same name, the book "radiates a calm, Californian confidence, letting its ideas unfold at a gentle pace." The parallels continue: "Adams's unique touch finds its literary analogue in a style of rare precision." The composer "here emerges as a storyteller."

Read More News About John Adams

About this Album

1988 Grammy Award Winner

Adams describes this landmark as “part epic, part satire, part parody
of political posturing, and part serious examination of historical,
philosophical, and even gender issues.” The Boston Globe called the Grammy-winning 1987 work “a milestone in American operatic history.”

Credits

MUSICIANS
Cast (in order of appearance):
Chou En-Lai: Sanford Sylvan
Richard Nixon: James Maddalena
Henry Kissinger: Thomas Hammons
Nancy T’ang (First Secretary to Mao): Mari Opatz
Second Secretary to Mao: Stephanie Friedman
Third Secretary to Mao: Marion Dry
Mao Tse-Tung: John Duykers
Pat Nixon: Carolann Page
Chiang Ch’in (Madame Mao Tse-Tung): Trudy Ellen Craney

Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Edo de Waart, conductor
Michael Feldman, artistic director
Louise Schulman, associate music director
Howard Jang, production manager
Violin: Mayuki Fukuhara, Amy Hiraga, Mineko Yajima, Anca Nicolau
Viola: Louise Schulman, Jennie Hansen, Stephanie Fricker
Cello: Maxine Neuman, co-principal; Myron Lutzke, Rosalyn Clarke, Karl Bennion
Bass: John T. Kulowitsch, John Feeney
Flute/Piccolo: Timothy Malosh, Sheryl Henze
Oboe: Stephen Taylor
Oboe / English Horn: Melanie Feld
Clarinet / E-Flat Clarinet: William Blount
Clarinet / Bass Clarinet: David Stanton, Gerhardt Koch
Saxophone: Lawrence Feldman, Ted Nash, Albert Regni, Roger Rosenberg
Trumpet: Chris Gekker, Carl Albach, Susan Radcliffe
Trombone: Michael Powell, Kenneth Finn, John Rojak
Percussion: Randall Maz
Yamaha HX-1 Synthesizer: John McGinn
Piano: Edmund Niemann, Martin Goldray

Chorus
Conoley E. Ballard Jr., chorus master
Jacqueline Pierce, chorus contractor
Soprano: Judy Berry, Sharon Daniels, Karen Grahn, Dana Hancard, Lorraine Kelley, Michele McBride
Alto: Patty Davis, Jay Ann Lee, Karen Leigh, Mary Runyan Marathe, Ruth Porter, Barbara Rearick
Tenor: James Bassi, Rodne Brown, Mukund Marathe, Edgar Moore, Martin Pierce
Bass: Roger Andrews, Christopher Arneson, Frank Curtis, Leslie Dorsey, Joseph Shockler, Todd Thomas

PRODUCTION CREDITS
The premiere performances of Nixon in China took place at the Houston Grand Opera (October 22–November 7, 1987), the Brooklyn Academy of Music (December 4–17, 1987), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (March 26–April 5, 1988), and The Netherlands Opera (June 2–18, 1988).
Music by John Adams
Libretto by Alice Goodman
Peter Sellars, director
Mark Morris, choreography
Adrianne Lobel, set design
Dunya Ramicova, costume design
James F. Ingalls, lighting design

FIRST RECORDING
Produced by Wilhelm Hellweg
Recorded December 1987 at RCA Studio A, New York City
Balance Engineer: John Newton
Assistant Recording Engineer / Tape Editor: Henk Kooistra
Mixed January 1988 at Soundmirror, Jamaica Plain, MA
Production Assistant: Jennifer Keats

Art direction and design by Drenttel Doyle Partners
Cover photo courtesy of Leslie Gill Collection

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz