ABSTRACT
At first glance it appears that Premier Chou En-lai plays only a minor role in John Adams's Nixon in China, the consummate diplomat who escorts the Americans throughout much of their visit. However, Chou's character becomes more complex over the course of the opera. John Adams and Alice Goodman depicts Chou as a man with conflicted feelings between his desire for a simple life, centered around home and family, and his calling as a participant in the revolution through which he rose to his position as prime minister of China. After holding significant roles in the revolution diplomatic, strategic, and military, Chou became the prime minister, of China, a position he held from the founding of the People's Republic. Adams's musical characterization of Chou, especially with its gentle melodic lines and subtle musical gestures, and Goodman's poetic characterization, mainly in Chou's attitudes and deep historical perspective, fittingly capture the aspects that Nixon and Kissinger admired.
