John Adams: Nixon in China
2011 · 176 MIN · IMDB 8.1 · 44 VOTES · DIR. Peter Sellars
Overview
John Adams’s groundbreaking work vividly brings to life US President Nixon’s 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China. Peter Sellars’s Metropolitan Opera production, based on his 1987 world-premiere staging, features choreography by Mark Morris and stars James Maddalena as Nixon, Robert Brubaker as Chairman Mao, Janis Kelly as First Lady Pat Nixon, Russell Braun as Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, and Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch’ing, Mao’s wife. From the pomp of the public displays to the intimacy of the protagonists most private moments, Adams, Sellars and librettist Alice Goodman reveal the real characters behind the headlines in this landmark American opera.
Dialogue Timeline — 802 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:06:09 Soldiers of heaven hold the sky
00:15:12 ...one for whom all travel is a penance now...
00:20:59 An old cold warrior piloting towards an unknown shore through shoals.
00:25:38 ...as p0Of men's common sense...
00:28:21 I like right-wingers: Nixon, Heath-
00:33:56 The crane-
00:39:06 The people are determined to divide the land and make it whole.
00:44:43 Fathers and sons, let usjoin hands...
00:50:18 No, I washed and rested, so I feel refreshed.
00:54:17 Intelligence is no bad thing.
01:03:29 ...I have attended many feasts...
01:08:12 You won't believe how moved I am.
01:29:35 ...a living current moves beneath rivers caught in the hand of death.
01:36:48 ...let the farmer switch on the light over the porch...
01:43:15 They drank white tea.
01:50:41 The land outside this cell is red...
02:02:54 ...the dragon's teeth your kin and kith seed of your seed...
02:08:16 ...who raised the weak above the strong.
02:20:37 Who chose these numbers?
02:27:37 What did she call herself? Lan P'ing?
02:31:34 ...and made him seem like one of us.
02:38:10 ...why should you?
02:43:23 As we ride eastwards.
02:51:27 Outside this room the chill of grace lies heavy on the morning grass.