Nixon in China : Alsop / Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Orth, Heller, etc (2008 Stereo)(3CD)

JOHN ADAMS (b. 1947) : Nixon in China
Opera in Three Acts, Libretto by Alice Goodman

Richard Nixon......Robert Orth
Pat Nixon ......Maria Kanyova
Henry Kissinger......Thomas Hammons
Mao Tse-tung......Marc Heller
Madame Mao (Chiang Ch’ing)......Tracy Dahl
Chou En-lai......Chen-Ye Yuan
1st Secretary (Nancy T’ang)......Melissa Malde
2nd Secretary......Julie Simson
3rd Secretary......Jennifer DeDominici
Opera Colorado Chorus / Douglas Kinney Frost, Chorus Master
Colorado Symphony Orchestra / Marin Alsop, conductor

A longtime collaborator of John Adams and champion of his music, Marin Alsop directs this live recording of Opera Colorado’s 25th Anniversary Celebration production of Nixon in China, presented at Denver’s new Ellie Caulkins Opera House during the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention, and featuring an internationally recognized cast. Alice Goodman’s epic libretto and John Adams’s distinctive music weave together a colorful fabric of actual events from President Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China with intimate examinations of the opera’s real life characters. The spectacle, drama, humor and pathos of this masterpiece remain as compelling today as when the opera was premiered in 1987. ( NAXOS )