The greatest contemporary American opera : Nixon in China

Blown away yesterday by the great LiveHD broadcast of John Adams's "Nixon in China." It's always (or often) a pleasure once in a while to see an opera in English - though it's obvious English is not as suited to the beautiful arias, as our words end on consonants generally and not on the open vowels - but on the other hand English (like German) allows for great specificity of diction, exploration of ideas, development of the depths of character - all evident in Nixon: first of all a great theme, the confluence of two such entirely different cultures and world view, second the great and complex personalities: Nixon scheming and insecure, Kissinger ruthless and dispassionate, Pat Nixon vapid and naive, and then Mao the batty and enigmatic philosopher, Chou the pragmatist, Madame Mao the ideologue. But these summaries don't do justice to the way the characters interact and play off each other, and even to the way they develop over the course of the opera - probably none more so that Pat N., who begins on an enthusiastic tour of Peking and reflects on beauty and peace, then sees the ballet that Madame Mao stages/writes in which the peasants rise and kill the landlord, and she goes crazy - she hates what she sees, wants to go home. Beautiful choral scenes, a really weird third/final act with the characters each "alone" in their bedrooms but lined up like a dormitory or a ward so we can see them all, as they variously look back on the course of their lives, stange and haunting and mournful. So much in this opera - a shame there aren't more great recent American ones - anyone remember that horrible Ghosts of Versailles? a travesty! - but at least we have this.