Performances: Nov 14, 19, 21

Nixon. Kissinger. Mao. In 1972, political titans converge in China for “the week that changed the world.” But beyond the media frenzy lies another story: the private lives behind history. America’s leading opera singers, superstar soprano Renée Fleming and acclaimed baritone Thomas Hampson in their return to the WNO stage, play America’s leading former first couple, Richard and Pat Nixon. 

Celebrated as a 20th-century classic, John Adams’s Nixon in China revisits the landmark diplomatic encounter between President Richard Nixon, Chairman Mao, and Henry Kissinger. Blending political spectacle with intimate human reflection, the opera moves between public image and private uncertainty, culminating in the haunting question: “How much of what we did was good?”