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NIXON IN CHINA
by John Adams
review by Ed Vincent

It is a fun production with excellent staging, dancing, and
sets. The cast sings well and the lights are wonderful. It
is a pleasure that the Chicago Opera Theater has come to
the city in the downtown showplace of the Harris Theater.
I saw many of the regulars from the Lyric audience in
theater and the attendees enjoyed the show.

After intermission, some of the scenes with Mrs. Nixon
were priceless comedy as she visits a pig farm and is given
a glass elephant-an original, just like the 800 that are made
each day. The soldiers sing that the "people are the heroes
now", but Mao will see millions killed to help the Cultural
Revolution (not to mention the 50,000,000 who died in
his coming to power). The Chinese do get to feed themselves
and kill democracy at the same time. There is more humor
and dance in this opera than history and even though it does
feel in length to be heading towards a Wagner-like time frame
the music is far from any Wagnerian mark. Adams musical
work in Minimalism fails to differentiate his work from that
of better known composer Phillip Glass.

It is nice to see contemporary history being brought to the
opera and the show is grand drama with lots of situational
comedy spiced in the tale. The show does not run for long
so get your tickets soon if you want to experience this fun
event. It ends May 27th.

NIXON IN CHINA
by John Adams

Opera in Three Acts

Music by John Adams
Libretto by Alice Goodman
First performance at the Houston Grand Opera, October 22, 1987
Original stage production by Peter Sellars, and choreography by Mark Morris.

Chou En-lai: baritone
Richard Nixon: baritone
Henry Kissinger: bass
Nancy T’ang (first secretary to Mao): mezzo soprano
Second secretary to Mao: alto
Third secretary to Mao: contralto
Mao Tse-tung: tenor
Pat Nixon: lyric soprano
Chiang Ch’ing (Madame Mao Tse-tung): coloratura soprano

NIXON IS FINALLY COMING TO CHICAGO!
CHICAGO OPERA THEATER PRESENTS
THE CHICAGO PREMIERE OF NIXON IN CHINA

CHICAGO, April 18, 2006--COT’s final offering of the 2006
spring season is the Chicago premiere of John Adams’s masterful Nixon in China, May 17-27. This premiere will be led by COT Resident Conductor Alexander Platt, and stars Robert Orth as
Nixon, whose performance has been called “superb and “brilliant”.

John Adams, considered the leading American opera composer
of the day, uses the former President’s visit to China in 1972 to provide the backdrop for a profound examination of the human struggles of two couples—the Nixons and Chairman Mao and his wife. The opera, which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987, is a rich and rhythmic blend of music, theater, and politics.

Alexander Platt, in his 6th season with COT, following such
triumphs as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Death in Venice,
will conduct. This large-scale production will be revived by Kevin Newbury--the original production was directed by James Robinson. Allen Moyer, James Schuette, Paul Palazzo, and Wendall
K. Harrington complete the design team. Sean Curran is the choreographer.

COT General Director Brian Dickie says, “I’m proud to say that finally bringing Nixon in China to Chicago is precisely why COT
is here—this is our 10th Chicago premiere since my first season in 2000, and there have been over 30 since the company began in 1974.’

Nixon in China stars Robert Orth as Nixon—Mr. Orth last wowed COT audiences as Frank Lloyd Wright in the acclaimed production of Shining Brow in 1997. The cast also includes Maria Kanyova, making her COT debut after a triumphant Madama Butterfly last summer, as Pat Nixon; Mark Duff’rn, who has played this role all over the country, as Chairman Mao; Kathleen Kim, who had a
busy season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as a member of the
Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, as Madame Mao; Chen
Ye Yuan, who has performed his masterful Rigoletto all over the world, as Chou En-lai; and Kyle Albertson, a Chicago Opera
Theater Young Artist last seen in COT’s double bill of The
Padlock and Ditto and Aeneas, as Henry Kissinger.

Nixon in China is co-produced in association with Opera Theatre
of St. Louis, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, Houston Ui-and Opera, and Opera Colorado. Chicago Opera Theater performs at The Harris Theater of Music and Dance in Millennium Park--205 East Randolph Drive.

Chicago Opera theater Tickets
Single tickets are currently on sale and range from $35-$ 115. Full-time college students and youths under 18 receive a 50% discount in sections B through D.

Tickets may be purchased by calling 312-704-8414 or online at ChicagoOperaTheater.org. They may also be purchased through
the Harris Theater by calling 312.334.7777 or online at HarrisTheaterChicago.org,

About Chicago Opera Theater

Since its first season in 1974, Chicago Opera Theater has carved
a significant place for itself in the operatic life of Chicago. Under
the leadership of Gene~a1 Director Brian Dickie, COT has become the company to watch with its wide range of operatic repertoire specializing in the greatest works of the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. COT opened the 2004 season in its new home, the
Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park. This modern, state-of-the-art theater is conveniently located at 205
East Randolph Drive. For more information, call 312-704-8420
ext. 25 or visit ChicagoOperaTheater.org

COT gratefully acknowledges our Production Sponsors for
Nixon in China: Exclusive Corporate Sponsor:    Boeing
Production Sponsors:    The Chicago Community Trust
Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
Individual Sponsor:    Mr. and Mrs. William D. Staley

COT gratefully acknowledges our 2006 Sponsors:
American Airlines, the official airline of Chicago
Opera Theater; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Illinois Arts
Council; City Arts Grants, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Major production support is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. AT&T
is the National Corporate Sponsor.

BIOS

JOHN ADAMS (Composer) is one of America’s most admired
and respected composers. A musician of enormous range and technical command, he has produced works, both operatic and symphonic, that stand out among all contemporary classical music for the depth of their expression, the brilliance of their sound
world and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. In
1985 Adams began a collaboration with the poet Alice Goodman
and stage director Peter Sellars that resulted in two operas, Nixon
in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. worldwide productions of which made them among the most performed operas in recent history. Doctor Atomic, based on the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the scientific and moral crises surrounding the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb in 1945, premiered on October 1,2005 at the San Francisco Opera. in 2002 Adams composed On the Transmigration of Souls for the New York Philharmonic, a work written in commemoration of the first anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. This work
received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and the Nonesuch recording won a rare “triple crown” at the Grammys, including
“Best Classical Recording”, “Best Orchestral Performance”, and “Best Classical Contemporary Composition.” In 2004 he became
the first ever recipient of the Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. The $100,000 prize includes four weeks of residency and teaching
at Northwestern over the next two years. Currently Composer in Residence at Carnegie Hall, John Adams maintains an active life
as a conductor, appearing with the world’s greatest orchestras.

ALEXANDER PLATT (Conductor) Music director of the
Waukesha Symphony and the Marion Indiana Philharmonic, Alexander Plait is resident conductor and music advisor of Chicago Opera Theater. Born in New York City, Maestro Platt was
educated at Yale College, where he was resident conductor at the Yale Center for British Art and graduated winning most of the
major music prizes, and was a Marshall Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. His work has ranged from leading the triumphant Chicago premiere of Britten’s Death in Venice and Midsummer Night’s Dream to guest conducting the Houston, Charlotte, and Columbus symphonies; the Freiburg Philharmonic in Germany;
and the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark, with whom he led a
highly successful Mahler week. He recently recorded Scottish
works for violin and orchestra with Rachel Barton and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall; the Cedille Records disc made its debut in summer 2005. He has led the premieres of works by Britten, Rorem, Shostakovich, and Judith Weir; has recorded for National Public Radio, the South-West German Radio, and the BBC; and has earned acclaim from The New York Times, The Financial Times, The London Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Opera News, and the Chicago Tribune. He spends his summers directing the Maverick Concerts, the oldest summer chamber-music festival in America.

ROBERT ORTH (Richard Nixon) Robert Orth’s first operatic
role was Guglielmo in COT’s inaugural production of Cosi
fan tutte. Subsequently he appeared in many COT productions
from Figaro in The Barber of Seville to John Buchanan, Jr., in
Summer and Smoke and Frank Lloyd Wright in Shining Brow.
Mr. Orth has sung with the San Francisco Opera, the
Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand
Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National
Opera, and many others. He has premiered several important new American operas including Harvey Milk (title role), Dead
Man Walking, and The End of the Affair. He has recorded
Harvey Milk, Hansel & Gretel, Dead Man Walking, Six
Characters in Search of an Author, and The Telephone. Among
his future engagements are Nixon in China in Cincinnati and
Houston, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The
Grapes of Wrath in Minneapolis and Salt Lake City.

BRIAN DICKIE (General Director) was born in England in 1941
and joined Glyndeboume Festival as an administrative assistant in
the Music and Planning Departments in 1962. From 1967 to 1973
he was Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival and simultaneously the first Administrator of Glyndebourne Touring Opera where a
high proportion of the leading British singers begin their careers. From 1973 to 1984 he was Artistic Advisor successively to the theatres in Angers, Nancy and the Theâtre.du Châtelet in Paris. In 1981 he became General Administrator of Glyndebourne Festival Opera where he worked with many distinguished Directors and Conductors including Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Peter Sellars, Bernard Haitink, Simon Rattle, and Andrew Davis. Brian held the post of General Director of the Canadian Opera Company from 1989 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1997 was Artistic Adviser to the Opéra de Nice and Adviser to the International
Youth Foundation during the formation of the European Union Opera. He was General Director of the European Union Opera’s Baden-Baden and Paris season in 1998 prior to joining Chicago Opera Theater as General Director in September 1999. In addition
to serving as General Director of COT he has been Chairman of
the International Jury for Ike-selections for the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Neuse Stimmen Competition since 1999. In this capacity last summer lie auditioned more than 800 singers in
Europe, the US, South America, Australia, and South Africa. Mr. Dickie sits on the board of Opera America and the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

NIXON IN CHINA
By John Adams

Libretto by Alice Goodman
Sung in English with English supertitles

Performance Dates.
May 17, 19, 25, 27    7:30 p.m.
May 21    3:00 p.m.
Conductor    Alexander Platt
Director    James Robinson
Revived by Associate Director    Kevin Newbury
Scenery    Allen Moyer
Costumes    James Schuette
Video    Wendall K. Harrington
Lighting    Paul Palazzo
Choreographer    Sean Curran

Cast List (in order of appearance)

Chou En-lai    Chen Ye Yuan
Richard Nixon    Robert Orth
Henry Kissinger    Kyle Albertson*
Nancy Tang    Sarah Mattox
Second Secretary:    Maia Surace
Third Secretary:    Reverie Mott Berger*
Mao Tse-tung    Mark Duffin
Pat Nixon    Maria Kanyova
Madame Mao:    Kathleen Kim

Chorus/Ensemble:
Jonathan Beyer (Nixon understudy), Janai Brugger*, Erika
Buchholz, Katherine Calcamuggio*, Jamie Dahman*, Bernadette Garza (Third Secretary understudy), Michael Gentile, Rebecca Glass* (Pat Nixon understudy), Emily Hull, Teppei Kono (Chou En-lai understudy), Sean Patrick Kroll*, Khary Laurent, Kala Maxym* (Nancy T’ang understudy), Jay Morrissey (Mao Tse-tung understudy), Rodolfo Nieto* (Kissinger understudy), Yun Ju Park*, Kinga Skretkowicz (Madame Mao understudy), Peter Sovitzky*, Michael Thoms, Jessica Usherwood, Wendy Van Asten, Edwin Vega*, Todd Wedge*, Yuan Zhou (Second Secretary understudy), Elizabeth Chang (Dancer cover), Todd Rhodes (Dancer cover)

tMember of Chicago Opera Theater’s Young Artists Program

Solo Dancers: Kimberly Jewart, Sun Ho Kim
Dancers: David Cho, Nicholas Duran, Megan McClellan
Supernumeraries: Antonio Montalvo, Michael Rice,
Roberta Rice, Cecily Shives

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