There is less than one month to go before John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera, Nixon in China, receives its premiere at New York's Metropolitan Opera on February 2, with the composer making his Met debut on the podium and Peter Sellars making his Met directorial debut. To coincide with this momentous occasion, Nonesuch Records will reissue the Grammy-winning original cast recording in a newly redesigned and specially-priced three-CD set on February 1, featuring a 68-page booklet with the complete libretto and new notes by Adams and Sellars, along with the original liner notes by librettist Alice Goodman and by the late Michael Steinberg, which the Los Angeles Times described as "a revelation."

In the latest entry in his blog, Hell Mouth, John Adams recalls the 1987 studio sessions that produced the original cast recording. Listening back to the album in preparation for the upcoming Met performances, Adams says he "was bowled over by how superb the playing and singing is." You can read what he has to say and see additional photos from the package on his site, earbox.com. You can also see a behind-the-scenes photo from the Met rehearsals on Adams's Facebook page, facebook.com/earbox.

To reserve a copy of the Nixon in China reissue, visit the Nonesuch Store now.

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Described as "a milestone in American operatic history" by the Boston Globe, Nixon in China explores President Nixon’s 1972 encounter with Mao Tse-tung and Communist China. Adams’s work, says Sellars, “shows you what opera can do to history, which is to deepen it and move into its more subtle, nuanced and mysterious corners.” James Maddalena, who sang the role of Richard Nixon at the world premiere and on the Nonesuch original recording, reprises his interpretation at the Met, opposite Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon and Robert Brubaker as Mao Tse-tung. Kathleen Kim is Mao’s wife Chiang Ch’ing and Russell Braun portrays Chou En-lai. Richard Paul Fink is Henry Kissinger. Sellars’s creative team includes set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls, choreographer Mark Morris, and sound designer Mark Grey.

In addition to the live performances of Nixon in China taking place at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the production will be transmitted live in high-definition to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, February 12, at 1 PM ET, as part of the Met's Live in HD series. Encore screenings will take place on Wednesday, March 12, at 6:30 PM, in the United States, and Saturday, March 12, at 1:30 PM ET, in Canada. For more information, visit metopera.org.

The Met will host a conversation about the production with Adams, Sellars, and members of the cast, led by Met General Manager Peter Gelb, on Tuesday, February 1, at the Metropolitan Opera House. For tickets to this and to performances of Nixon in China, visit metopera.org.

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Though Opening Night at the Met is four weeks away, the Asia Society, in association with the Metropolitan Opera, will present a conversation with Sellars and Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations, about US-China relations and the role of culture in that relationship. That event will take place next week, on Tuesday, January 11. For information and tickets, go to asiasociety.org.

New York classical music station WQXR is offering audiences its own special preview of the production on Wednesday, January 19. The event will take place at The Greene Space in downtown Manhattan and feature a conversation with Adams and Sellars, hosted by WQXR's Terrance McKnight, as well as performances by Maddalena, Kim, and Braun. For more information and tickets, visit wnyc.org.