Nixon in China [Blu-ray/DVD]

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The Metropolitan Opera’s performance of John Adams’ Nixon in China, with the composer conducting, is here on Blu-ray and DVD together in one package. The Met’s production, staged by Peter Sellars and first created by the English National Opera, stars James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, a role he originated. The performance seen here was broadcast live in movie theaters around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD on February 12, 2011, ten days after the opera received its Met premiere. "Here, on film, is the most influential American opera of the past quarter-century," says the Financial Times. "Future generations will see Nixon in China as the composer intended."

Description

“The opera and the production may have come to the Met at just the right time to comprehend the continuing resonances of this audacious and moving opera.” —New York Times

Nonesuch Records releases the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of John Adams’ Nixon in China, with the composer conducting, on Blu-ray and DVD together in one package on November 19, 2012. The Met’s production, staged by Adams’ longtime collaborator Peter Sellars, stars James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, a role he created at the opera’s world premiere in 1987 and has since performed at international leading opera houses, including the English National Opera, Netherlands Opera, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nixon in China was recorded and broadcast live in movie theaters around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD on February 12, 2011—10 days after the opera received its Met premiere.

The opera’s libretto is by American poet Alice Goodman, who also collaborated with Adams and Sellars on The Death of Klinghoffer. The Met’s production, which was originally created by the English National Opera, features the work of the 1987 world premiere’s design team, including set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls, and choreographer Mark Morris. Nixon in China also features Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon, Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch’ing, Robert Brubaker as Mao Tse-tung, Russell Braun as Chou En-lai, and Richard Paul Fink as Henry Kissinger. Adams, who regularly conducts major orchestras around the world, made his Met debut as conductor with Nixon in China; his opera Doctor Atomic had its Met premiere in a well-reviewed 2008 production.

“I met Peter Sellars in 1983, and he proposed the idea and even the title for Nixon in China. My first response was pretty skeptical—Nixon was little more than a butt for late night comedians by that time,” Adams tells the Met’s Elena Park in an interview published in the Blu-ray/DVD’s booklet. “But I eventually realized it was a perfect idea, and that it was right to find our mythology in our own contemporary history.”

In the same interview, Sellars says of Nixon in China’s arrival at the Met: “It’s very sweet after 25 years. We created it as anti-grand opera originally, and now it’s beautiful that at the Met it can be genuinely grand. The work was made by a group of very young, very idealistic people. We were trying to show what opera can contribute to history, which is to deepen it and move it into its more subtle, nuanced, and mysterious corners, which might just open into more surprising and satisfying possibilities for a future.”

The Nixon in China Blu-ray/DVD is John Adams’ 27th Nonesuch release, beginning with Harmonielehre in 1986. The most recent release was 2011’s Son of Chamber Symphony/String Quartet.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
A Metropolitan Opera
High-Definition Production

Director: Peter Sellars
Music Producer: Jay David Saks
Supervising Producers: Mia Bongiovanni, Elena Park
Producers: Louisa Briccetti, Victoria Warivonchik
Executive Producer: Peter Gelb

Musical Preparation: Gregory Buchalter, John Churchwell, Howard Watkins, Caren Levine, Steven Osgood
Assistant Stage Directors: Eric Einhorn, Fred Frumberg, Kathleen Smith Belcher
English Coach: Erie Mills
Prompter: Gregory Buchalter
Assistant to Mark Morris: Peter Wing Healey
Dramaturg: Paul Cremo

Nixon in China is performed by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner.

Production originally created by English National Opera

Blu-ray & DVD Menu Design by Craig Anderson
Blu-ray Authoring by Craig Anderson
DVD Authoring by David Dieckmann
Designed and Authored at Craigman Digital

Package Design: August Heffner
Photography © 2011 Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

English Subtitles: Met Titles adapted by David Rebhun © Metropolitan Opera 2011
French, German and Spanish Subtitles: © Metropolitan Opera 2010

Nonesuch Selection Number

532291

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
Album Status
Artist Name
John Adams
The Metropolitan Opera
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Music by John Adams
Libretto by Alice Goodman
Directed by Peter Sellars

Conducted by John Adams
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet
Chorus Master: Donald Palumbo

Cast (in order of appearance):
Chou En-lai: Russell Braun
Nancy T’ang (First Secretary to Mao): Ginger Costa-Jackson
Second Secretary to Mao: Teresa S. Herold
Third Secretary to Mao: Tamara Mumford
Richard Nixon: James Maddalena
Pat Nixon: Janis Kelly
Henry Kissinger: Richard Paul Fink
Mao Tse-tung: Robert Brubaker
Chiang Ch’ing (Madame Mao Tse-tung): Kathleen Kim
Solo Dancers: Haruno Yamazaki, Kanji Segawa

Production: Peter Sellars
Set Designer: Adrianne Lobel
Costume Designer: Dunya Ramicova
Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
Choreographer: Mark Morris
Sound Designer: Mark Grey

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
Blu-Ray/DVD
UPC
075597960884
  • 532291

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • "Right from the start, the very first notes sound almost like a pickaxe going against rock and then against that the singing has a certain quality that I think has that same simplicity of affect," composer John Adams says of his 2017 opera, Girls of the Golden West, in a new Boosey & Hawkes video marking the work's recently released first recording. "All of that comes together in this opera in a way that I think only opera can actually address, because it addresses you on an intellectual level, but it also fundamentally touches you on an emotional level." You can see what else he had to say here.

  • "The winner of five Grammy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Music, John Adams is one of America's greatest and most performed living composers," BBC Radio 4's This Cultural Life host John Wilson says of his guest. They talk about Adams' life, work, and the influence of Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Steve Reich, Charles Dickens, the state of California, and more. You can hear their conversation here.

  • About This Album

    “The opera and the production may have come to the Met at just the right time to comprehend the continuing resonances of this audacious and moving opera.” —New York Times

    Nonesuch Records releases the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of John Adams’ Nixon in China, with the composer conducting, on Blu-ray and DVD together in one package on November 19, 2012. The Met’s production, staged by Adams’ longtime collaborator Peter Sellars, stars James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, a role he created at the opera’s world premiere in 1987 and has since performed at international leading opera houses, including the English National Opera, Netherlands Opera, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nixon in China was recorded and broadcast live in movie theaters around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD on February 12, 2011—10 days after the opera received its Met premiere.

    The opera’s libretto is by American poet Alice Goodman, who also collaborated with Adams and Sellars on The Death of Klinghoffer. The Met’s production, which was originally created by the English National Opera, features the work of the 1987 world premiere’s design team, including set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls, and choreographer Mark Morris. Nixon in China also features Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon, Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch’ing, Robert Brubaker as Mao Tse-tung, Russell Braun as Chou En-lai, and Richard Paul Fink as Henry Kissinger. Adams, who regularly conducts major orchestras around the world, made his Met debut as conductor with Nixon in China; his opera Doctor Atomic had its Met premiere in a well-reviewed 2008 production.

    “I met Peter Sellars in 1983, and he proposed the idea and even the title for Nixon in China. My first response was pretty skeptical—Nixon was little more than a butt for late night comedians by that time,” Adams tells the Met’s Elena Park in an interview published in the Blu-ray/DVD’s booklet. “But I eventually realized it was a perfect idea, and that it was right to find our mythology in our own contemporary history.”

    In the same interview, Sellars says of Nixon in China’s arrival at the Met: “It’s very sweet after 25 years. We created it as anti-grand opera originally, and now it’s beautiful that at the Met it can be genuinely grand. The work was made by a group of very young, very idealistic people. We were trying to show what opera can contribute to history, which is to deepen it and move it into its more subtle, nuanced, and mysterious corners, which might just open into more surprising and satisfying possibilities for a future.”

    The Nixon in China Blu-ray/DVD is John Adams’ 27th Nonesuch release, beginning with Harmonielehre in 1986. The most recent release was 2011’s Son of Chamber Symphony/String Quartet.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Music by John Adams
    Libretto by Alice Goodman
    Directed by Peter Sellars

    Conducted by John Adams
    The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet
    Chorus Master: Donald Palumbo

    Cast (in order of appearance):
    Chou En-lai: Russell Braun
    Nancy T’ang (First Secretary to Mao): Ginger Costa-Jackson
    Second Secretary to Mao: Teresa S. Herold
    Third Secretary to Mao: Tamara Mumford
    Richard Nixon: James Maddalena
    Pat Nixon: Janis Kelly
    Henry Kissinger: Richard Paul Fink
    Mao Tse-tung: Robert Brubaker
    Chiang Ch’ing (Madame Mao Tse-tung): Kathleen Kim
    Solo Dancers: Haruno Yamazaki, Kanji Segawa

    Production: Peter Sellars
    Set Designer: Adrianne Lobel
    Costume Designer: Dunya Ramicova
    Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
    Choreographer: Mark Morris
    Sound Designer: Mark Grey

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    A Metropolitan Opera
    High-Definition Production

    Director: Peter Sellars
    Music Producer: Jay David Saks
    Supervising Producers: Mia Bongiovanni, Elena Park
    Producers: Louisa Briccetti, Victoria Warivonchik
    Executive Producer: Peter Gelb

    Musical Preparation: Gregory Buchalter, John Churchwell, Howard Watkins, Caren Levine, Steven Osgood
    Assistant Stage Directors: Eric Einhorn, Fred Frumberg, Kathleen Smith Belcher
    English Coach: Erie Mills
    Prompter: Gregory Buchalter
    Assistant to Mark Morris: Peter Wing Healey
    Dramaturg: Paul Cremo

    Nixon in China is performed by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner.

    Production originally created by English National Opera

    Blu-ray & DVD Menu Design by Craig Anderson
    Blu-ray Authoring by Craig Anderson
    DVD Authoring by David Dieckmann
    Designed and Authored at Craigman Digital

    Package Design: August Heffner
    Photography © 2011 Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

    English Subtitles: Met Titles adapted by David Rebhun © Metropolitan Opera 2011
    French, German and Spanish Subtitles: © Metropolitan Opera 2010

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