Nixon raps in minimalist opera? History's weirdest diplomatic banger.
In February 1972, the American president Richard Nixon went to China to meet Mao Zedong. In the context of the war in Vietnam and the cold war, this encounter marked a turning point in Chinese‑American relations. John Adams, a major musical figure of the last forty years, made this event of contemporary history the subject of his first opera. Nixon in China tackles the political thaw instigated by ping-pong diplomacy, begun by the invitation of the American table tennis players by their Chinese counterparts, one year before the presidential visit. A mesmerising work in which the pulsations and repetitions typical of minimalism are combined with melodic lines of great lyricism. For its entry into the Paris Opera repertoire, this work has been entrusted to the director Valentina Carrasco, who underlines the importance and the mediating power of Chinese national sport in history.
Direction
Carrasco turns ping-pong into actual geopolitical choreography.
Score
Adams' hypnotic repetition makes diplomacy feel like a trance.
Production
The Paris Opera staging transforms 1972 into fever-dream spectacle.
Director
Valentina Carrasco
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Nixon reportedly hated the 1987 premiere and called it 'a piece of sh*t' — composer Adams keeps this quote framed.
This production marks the first time Paris Opera staged Adams, ending decades of European institutions treating American minimalism as 'not serious opera.'
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