John Adams's music has featured prominently in California concert calendars of late, with the recent world premiere of his new oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, by the LA Philharmonic, and last weekend's Bay Area premiere of his first opera, Nixon in China, by the San Francisco Opera. The Gospel "contains some of the strongest, most impassioned music of Adams’s career," raves The New Yorker. It is "an immensely potent work, one that may prove pivotal in the composer's output." The San Francisco Chronicle says the piece "finds Adams at his most evocative and inventive." Of Nixon in China, the Chronicle says it "has taken its rightful place as one of the great operas of the latter part of the 20th century. And Friday's performance came as a welcome reminder of how audacious and yet assured this work is."

John Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, makes its San Francisco Opera debut tonight at the War Memorial Opera House, the opening night of the Opera's Summer Season and the first of seven performances of Adams's piece. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark work and the 40th anniversary of Nixon's visit to China. Watch a preview video here. Also this weekend, Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the three principals who originated their roles.

John Adams's new oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, with a libretto by Peter Sellars, receives its world premiere tonight in the first of four performances this week by the LA Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall. "Adams' take on his subject is a timely, politically engaged one and unabashedly so," says the Los Angeles Times. "However, the politics of Gospel are artfully melded with its broader humanistic and spiritual concerns ... If Adams' work is notable for its willingness to grapple with such thorny subtexts, it's also been lauded for its emotional intensity and accessibility." Watch Adams discuss the piece in a video here.

A new production of John Adams's groundbreaking first opera Nixon in China, led by director Chen Shi-Zheng, receives its premiere performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris tonight. Musical director Alexander Briger leads the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Châtelet choir, and a cast featuring baritone Franco Pompini as President Richard Nixon. Performances begin tonight and run through next Wednesday, April 18. Watch a preview of the new production here. Nonesuch Records reissued the Grammy-winning original cast recording of Nixon in China last year.

As part of their 2011-12 Centennial Season, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony launch a month-long American Mavericks Festival of music by pioneers of the American sound. The Festival begins at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall tonight, with performances there through March 18, followed by a national tour to Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium, and Carnegie Hall in New York through March 30. The American Mavericks Festival explores the music of path-breaking composers like Steve Reich and builds on their visionary spirit with world-premieres, including John Adams's "Absolute Jest." Watch Adams discuss the piece here.

John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer received its long-awaited London premiere by the English National Opera this past weekend. The production, led by conductor Baldur Brönniman and director Tom Morris has received tremendous attention in the British press. The Times gives the production a four-star review and calls the opera "a serious work of art" and the production "absorbing and provocative." The Guardian calls it “a major achievement,” in a four-star review, and an editorial in the same paper describes the opera as “a serious, beautiful and nuanced work that engages with one of the intractable tragedies of our era.” The Financial Times calls the piece "Adams at his best."

John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer, featuring a libretto by Alice Goodman, receives its London premiere in performances by the English National Opera starting this Saturday. Director Tom Morris (War Horse) makes his opera directing debut. Following the 1991 premiere of The Death of Klinghoffer, the New York Times said the work “transmutes contemporary history into operatic poetry.” Adams and Goodman recently spoke with BBC Radio 3's Music Matters about the opera and the controversy that surrounds it. Morris does so as well in a video you can watch here.

Congratulations to Pat Metheny, who has won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for his 2011 Nonesuch release, What's It All About. This year's win marks Metheny's 19th Grammy Award. Watch his performance of The Beatles' "And I Love Her" here. Congratulations also go to Judith Sherman, who won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Classical, for work including two Nonesuch albums: John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony and Steve Reich's WTC 9/11.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced its 2012–13 season, which will feature the fully staged version of John Adams's oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by the Philharmonic's Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. The project will be taken on an international tour, with performances in London, Lucerne, Paris, and New York. Adams, who is the orchestra's Creative Chair, continues to oversee its popular Green Umbrella new-music series and will conduct two of the series' concerts in Los Angeles.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2012–13 season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Kronos Quartet, Richard Goode, Dawn Upshaw, and Alarm Will Sound, as well as world and New York premiere performances of works by Steve Reich, Timothy Andres, and Donnacha Dennehy. In addition, John Adams will lead a Professional Training Workshop for emerging talents through Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute.

The Metropolitan Opera's premiere production of John Adams's Nixon in China, conducted by the composer and staged by director Peter Sellars in their Met debuts, will be given a free screening in Lincoln Center Plaza in New York City tonight at 7:45 PM as part of the Met's third-annual free Summer HD Festival. Seating for the Met's Summer HD Festival is on a first-come, first-served basis and no tickets are required; more than 3,000 seats will be available.

The first recording of John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony was released on Nonesuch earlier this year, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, paired with his String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The Boston Globe says the former piece "has a madcap wit, an infectious rhythmic energy and vitality, and a beautifully wrought slow movement." The Detroit Free Press gives the album a perfect four stars, calling the latter piece "a major addition to the repertoire." The New Haven Advocate says it's "a first recording that seems likely to remain the benchmark."