Nixon in China is one of a handful of operas that mean the most to me. I first heard
Nixon when I was at Dartmouth College in the spring of '94 during an opera survey class. The professor only played the "News" aria, but that was all I needed to hear, I was hooked. I instantly bought the recording and played it all day every day and when I finally got the score many years later, it revealed a whole new dimension to the music that I could finally play and sing to myself.
As we prepare for the opening of
Nixon in China on June 8, we started thinking about the year the opera takes place: 1972. It was a year of many firsts for women, a lot of violence in Northern Ireland, the birth of the video game, the Watergate scandal and when President Nixon visited China. Read on for a timeline of fun facts to impress your friends with from that fateful year.