Evening Music

Nixon in China

Friday, December 07, 2007

For his first large-scale stage work, John Adams chose Richard Nixon's historic 1972 trip to China as a subject, creating one of the great American operas in the process. We hear Adams' precursor to "Nixon in China," the catchy orchestral foxtrot "The Chairman Dances."

The Chairman Dances

John Adams describes his piece's origins: "'The Chairman Dances' was an 'out-take' of Act III of 'Nixon in China.' Neither an 'excerpt' nor a 'fantasy on themes from,' it was in fact a kind of warmup for embarking on the creation of the full opera...themes, sometimes slinky and sentimental, at other times bravura and bounding, ride above in bustling fabric of energized motives."

buy The Chairman Dances at amazon.com
more about John Adams on the web