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 air on PBS stations across the United States tonight at 9 PM ET, as part of the Great Performances at the Met series from New York public television channel THIRTEEN. In New York, THIRTEEN will present an encore broadcast on Sunday, July 3, at 12:30 PM. The program was originally seen live in movie theaters on February 12, 2011, as part of the The Met: Live in HD, which transmits live performances to more than 1,500 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 46 countries around the world. Check your local listings at pbs.org.

To coincide with the Met premiere of Nixon in China, Nonesuch Records reissued the Grammy-winning original cast recording in a newly redesigned and specially-priced three-CD set earlier this year, 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." The recording is available in the Nonesuch Store, where you'll also find Adams's latest Nonesuch release, Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet, released just yesterday.

The new Met production of Nixon in China stars James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, a role he created at the opera's world premiere in 1987, captured on the Nonesuch recording. With a libretto by American poet Alice Goodman, the opera is based on significant moments during President Nixon's visit to China in February of 1972, with the key political figures as the lead characters: Nixon, first lady Pat Nixon (Janis Kelly) and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Richard Paul Fink) for the Americans; Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Robert Brubaker), his wife Chiang Ch'ing (Kathleen Kim), and Premier Chou En-lai (Russell Braun) for the Chinese.

The Met's production features the work of the world premiere production's design team, including set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls, and choreographer Mark Morris. Adams, Sellars, Goodman, and Morris also collaborated on the opera The Death of Klinghoffer.

Adams, who has conducted his works with many major orchestras, makes his Met debut as conductor of Nixon in China; his opera Doctor Atomic had its Met premiere in 2008 and later aired on Great Performance at the Met.

Maddalena has sung Nixon on many of the world's leading stages, including the English National Opera, Netherlands Opera, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Washington Opera, and the Theatre du Chatelet. Kelly, who also starred with Maddalena in the recent English National Opera revival of the opera, made her Met debut as Pat Nixon. Kathleen Kim, who won critical plaudits for her Zerbinetta and Olympia in recent seasons, takes on the challenging coloratura role of Chiang Ch'ing, the forbidding and formidable wife of Mao Tse-tung. Brubaker has sung in many 20th-century works at the Met, including Moses und Aron, The Makropoulos Case, Peter Grimes, and the Met premiere of Busoni's Doktor Faust. Braun is best-known to Met audiences for his Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Fink sang principal roles in the Met premieres of Adams' Doctor Atomic and John Harbison's The Great Gatsby. 

Great Performances at the Met: Nixon in China was directed for the live HD transmission by Peter Sellars and hosted by Met baritone Thomas Hampson. Jay David Saks is the music producer. The performance is sung in English with subtitles.