I wasn't sure what to expect from
Nixon in China, as most of the press coverage I had read beforehand focused on the opera as event. An event it certainly was; I thought it was also a fascinating opera. I came out haunted by the music, humming the music, and with lots of thoughts to mull. From an edgy opening chorus backed by ominously propulsive music to the ambiguous, elegiac conclusion, via dizzying ensembles and interchanges, a complex drama was kept taut through Adams' characteristically inventive orchestration and a fascinating libretto.
