I volunteered at the Met during the revival of this opera. I would go into the house every second act just to hear this aria. Kathleen Kim is one of my heros!
I sang this in recital. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever sung. People trynna say Queen of the Night is the hardest coloratura aria, and I’m like, “Oh noooooo…there is another….”
I saw the original production when it came to Brooklyn, and when the curtains suddenly parted to show the gigantic portrait of Mao--dwarfing the ballet performers and the Nixons below them--it was such a genuinely eerie moment. And then the aria began...
I saw this, like, 10 years ago and I can still hear her singing the BoOoOOOOK! BoOoOk! BooOOOOkkkkk!!!! 😱. What a chilling performance, and a mastery vocal gymnastics. Absolutely breathtaking.
This song is strangely addictive. Like most modern music I found it so bizarre at first but I just needed to revisit it. Now I can’t get it out of my head so I will have to start learning it…and this version will for sure be my template. Simply spectacular!
Kathleen Kim was born to sing this role. I saw this production at the Met in February 2011 and my heart was POUNDING throughout this entire scene. Brava!
I lack the knowledge to judge on opera- but what I can say, is that Kathleen Kim has all the ruthlessness, the rage, and ideological fanaticism needed for a figure as horrific as Jiang Qing. Well done!
+Dashiell Tevis Opera is just as much about character and drama as it is about music. You don't need knowledge to enjoy it just like you would a play or movie. If anything it is harder to act a convincing character whilst singing so she's clearly doing it right!!
In regards to judging on opera, I can at least shed some light on the musical aspect: there are no fewer than 100 tritones (the "devil's interval") in this 6 minute aria, both in the soprano line and in the chord progression.
An absolutely indelible performance in one of the greatest operas of the 20th century. I just keep coming back to this scene. She brings tears to my eyes every time.
this is a rockin performance. I'm a big JA fan, although this is not my favorite of his pieces, but this and the opening chorus are, in my opinion, as good as opera gets. I love how he set the line " when I appear the people hang on my every word", so that the first time she sings it, it's "when I appear the people hang." How true that was.
This Peter Sellars staging has evolved so much from the 1986 premiere, I saw it in 1990 and this is much more chaotic and frightening, yet clearer musically and dramaturgically. The singer playing her is so much better. And it's amazing that this actually happened--the Nixons and Kissenger et al. were forced to watch a performance of Mrs. Mao's "The Red Detachment of Women" ballet. The opera seems to embody how bizarre such a culture clash might have been.
Will be seeing this live performance once again this weekend, this time at The Opera Bastille in Paris. The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel. Can't wait to experience this !!!
After this performance I can't listen to anyone else! When I'm listening to this opera on Spotify, I switch to UA-cam for this aria only, and then switch back to Spotify xD
That look of horror on Pat Nixon's face at all the atrocities committed toward the end of the song. It's the perfect counterpoint to the violence, it really drives home the point.
Kathleen Kim is superb in this role!!! Not only did her theatrical performance bring Chiang Ch'ing to life, but also, more importantly, her singing really embodied the neuroticism of Chiang Ch'ing. A flawless interpretation in my opinion.
I saw Kim perform this in a staged concert version a dozen or so years ago. I'd never heard the score before then. This aria was incredible, and is one of the few things I remember vividly.
The very best Madam Mao ever...I'm not sure I won't be able to guess the other sopranos who can take this role as superb as like her! You guys Just listen to her high notes at the finale parts! It's a kind of revolution.You can feel the Aura of Perfact matching with this Role.Speechless... 정말 최고의 장칭. 닉슨 인 차이나에서 장칭을 제대로 연기한 소프라노는 적어도 나에게는 캐슬린 선생님 한 분 뿐. 거의 접신에 가까운 캐릭터 해석력...
Being as this is my favorite opera (thanks in no small part to Alice Goodman's stunningly beautiful libretto), I'm going to have to disagree with calls to have it scaled down to resemble West Side Story. The final moment in this scene-where Madame Mao and Chou En-Lai stand staring one another down-is one of the strongest moments from this production (IMHO). Kathleen Kim is such a delightfully nasty and arrogant Madame Mao!
Maravillosa! Porqué no la conocía? Excelente soprano de coloratura… me pareció escuchar en una parte sin legato que en esas notas tan altísimas tiene que ser difícil, muy difícil. La Reina de la Noche… La misma arrogancia y el deseo de control ( levanta el libro rojo de Mao). A mí me parece brillante… podría ser la parte más difícil y ella la hace suya. Me fascina
I really wish they had mimed the ending as was done in the original Houston Opera production. All the cries, moans, and screams end up being less disturbing than simply showing the action with the music.
Yet there are many more composers who can appreciate the beauty of Adam's style, especially from a cinematic-composition perspective; it's just so dynamic and powerful, it transcends the traditional notions of 'program music'. I cannot help but hold my breath for the last minute with the powerful juxtaposition of the motifs, fast and slow. It takes a skilled musician to denounce a style, but a great musician to appreciate it with an open mind, even if it does not suit them. ;)
(cont'd) that has increasingly come to shape world events in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this and other ways Adams' music and Goodman's text - a work, if you care to read it, of extraordinary poetic and philosophical depth - have proved to be, as Pat Nixon says in Act II, truly "prophetic". I can understand, of course, that the piece is not for everyone, but you'd be better off educating yourself than making callously dismissive comments.
I really do enjoyed. Yes, I really am . With me, the "RED BOOK" is a meaningful. It 's a really a big icon, that's bringing the fire from hell upon the earth. And, after Mao and the other of their leaders has passed aways and now Mr Xi JinPing has been continuing doing the same way, but they are still singing :" peaceful ! peaceful ! peaceful !!! " (?). Viva China !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Many Thanks to Composer and all the artists who have been well done the lovely work. TKH.
Amazing English diction, and an absolutely gorgeous voice. That high D was so secure and comfortable! Just wish she had a bit more metal in her voice for this music. Sounded a bit Bel Canto, but I guess she just is a perfectly trained singer, simply incapable of sounding harsh.
The most accurate dressing and look I've seen! Really similar to Chiang Qing in her later years. Moreover, Kathleen Kim parades the stage like a dictator, raging and "educating". She doesn't even try to hide her twisting of reality in the words "at the breast of history, I sucked and *pissed* ". One thing that I didn't like is that she didn't pronounce the word "Blind" like the words before it and after it, but that's nitpicking. Overall, this deserves to be the reference performance for years to come. Edit: In addition, this is one of the least racist representations of China in the whole of opera.
I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung... I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung, who raised the weak, above the strong! When I appear, the people hung. When I appear the people hung upon my rights. And for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy 'round my neck, and for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy round my neck, I speak according to the book! The book! The Book! The Book! When did the Chinese people last expose it's daughters? When did the Chinese people last expose it's daughters? At the breasts of history, I sucked and pissed, thoughtless and heartless, red and blind, I cut my teeth across the land, and when I walk, my feet were bound on Revolution! Let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, and I shall taste eternal joy. Let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, and I shall taste eternal joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung. I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung, who raise the weak above the strong. When I appear, the people hang... When I appear people hang upon my rights. And for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy round my neck. And for his sake, I speak according to the book! The book! The book! The book! The book! The book! I speak according to the book, I speak according to the book, I speak according to the book, the book, the book, the book, the book, the book!
The best aria in what I find, unfortunately, to be quite a tedious opera. I wanted to like it so much when it finally was performed at SF Opera a few years ago. Not so much.
My feelings about this music are much the same as those I experience with a lot of modern art. I understand and appreciate it as political or "message" art. Kim is brilliant with an incredible voice and great acting skills. The staging is spot on. But the music doesn't stir my soul. I can't feel the beauty of it. But "Ombra Mai Fu" gives me wings to soar with the angels.
Music isn't always supposed to be pretty, even within classical music. Especially in a part of an opera where a character is glorifying China's Cultural Revolution. I find it rather stirring, and the staging reflects the frenetic energy and turmoil through the lens of the Americans
The music stirs my soul, and it isn't in a pretty way, I heard two pieces so far and it gives me this disturbing feeling I can't explain. A darkness... and I guess this is exactly what he is trying to express through the music, so I am totally in awe. But this is too heavy for me to sit through i guess.... i'd rather to listen to really joyful music :)
Not gonna lie; this was terrifying! What an intensity and drama! What a terrific job by Kathleen Kim
dont know if anyone cares at all but I just hacked my girl friends Instagram account using Instablaster.
The White-boned Demon was pretty scary in real life.
They were "revisionist/capitalist gangs/mafias" so called, who are generally officials/cadres and intellectuals.
I volunteered at the Met during the revival of this opera. I would go into the house every second act just to hear this aria. Kathleen Kim is one of my heros!
One of the great soprano arias in all the high coloratura literature. An amazing opera and a triumph of 20th century composition.
I sang this in recital. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever sung. People trynna say Queen of the Night is the hardest coloratura aria, and I’m like, “Oh noooooo…there is another….”
@@arielthequeen890 totally. There are a few of Mozart’s concert arias that make queen of the night sound like art song.
I saw the original production when it came to Brooklyn, and when the curtains suddenly parted to show the gigantic portrait of Mao--dwarfing the ballet performers and the Nixons below them--it was such a genuinely eerie moment. And then the aria began...
I saw this, like, 10 years ago and I can still hear her singing the BoOoOOOOK! BoOoOk! BooOOOOkkkkk!!!! 😱. What a chilling performance, and a mastery vocal gymnastics. Absolutely breathtaking.
This song is strangely addictive. Like most modern music I found it so bizarre at first but I just needed to revisit it. Now I can’t get it out of my head so I will have to start learning it…and this version will for sure be my template. Simply spectacular!
Kathleen Kim was born to sing this role. I saw this production at the Met in February 2011 and my heart was POUNDING throughout this entire scene. Brava!
What a banger! She deserved a standing ovation for that performance.
I lack the knowledge to judge on opera- but what I can say, is that Kathleen Kim has all the ruthlessness, the rage, and ideological fanaticism needed for a figure as horrific as Jiang Qing. Well done!
+Dashiell Tevis Opera is just as much about character and drama as it is about music. You don't need knowledge to enjoy it just like you would a play or movie. If anything it is harder to act a convincing character whilst singing so she's clearly doing it right!!
i mean she is in the rankings of the top sopranos in our era. she is a ledgend
In regards to judging on opera, I can at least shed some light on the musical aspect: there are no fewer than 100 tritones (the "devil's interval") in this 6 minute aria, both in the soprano line and in the chord progression.
John Adams secured his very high place in the world of music with this opera, and with this aria in particular. Just stunning.
Extraordinary, both the music and the voice of Kathleen Kim.
I enjoyed yesterday in Berlin this amazing Opera. This was my second time. This aria is just heart and breath taking! Love it!
An absolutely indelible performance in one of the greatest operas of the 20th century. I just keep coming back to this scene. She brings tears to my eyes every time.
She is such an actress with such firm technique and beautiful voice 🙇♀️ Bow ❤ People should watch more of this!!!!!! What an intense opera wow 👍👍
this is a rockin performance. I'm a big JA fan, although this is not my favorite of his pieces, but this and the opening chorus are, in my opinion, as good as opera gets. I love how he set the line " when I appear the people hang on my every word", so that the first time she sings it, it's "when I appear the people hang." How true that was.
meaning as a whole Nixon in China is not my favorite of his works. Anyone who doubts his abilities, listen to "Harmonium".
I noticed that too, well done!
This Peter Sellars staging has evolved so much from the 1986 premiere, I saw it in 1990 and this is much more chaotic and frightening, yet clearer musically and dramaturgically. The singer playing her is so much better. And it's amazing that this actually happened--the Nixons and Kissenger et al. were forced to watch a performance of Mrs. Mao's "The Red Detachment of Women" ballet. The opera seems to embody how bizarre such a culture clash might have been.
It's the greatest performance in all the history of opera, I think.
Will be seeing this live performance once again this weekend, this time at The Opera Bastille in Paris. The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel. Can't wait to experience this !!!
Excellent performance! I lived in China and read the book of his private physician. The opera is the best contemporary picture painted with music!
One of my favorite arias brilliantly performed. A gem i come back to regularly for years. Thanks for posting this.
This is mesmerizing. I've been watching it repeatedly.
After this performance I can't listen to anyone else! When I'm listening to this opera on Spotify, I switch to UA-cam for this aria only, and then switch back to Spotify xD
One of the great arias written in our time. And powerfully sung. Thanks for posting!
That look of horror on Pat Nixon's face at all the atrocities committed toward the end of the song. It's the perfect counterpoint to the violence, it really drives home the point.
Kathleen Kim is superb in this role!!! Not only did her theatrical performance bring Chiang Ch'ing to life, but also, more importantly, her singing really embodied the neuroticism of Chiang Ch'ing. A flawless interpretation in my opinion.
One of the finest arias in the entire opera repertoire.
I saw Kim perform this in a staged concert version a dozen or so years ago. I'd never heard the score before then. This aria was incredible, and is one of the few things I remember vividly.
Holy CRAP that was an amazing performance!
I remember watching this on PBS when I was a kid. I was so intrigued. This was one of my fave scenes.
what can I say, this performance is over the top!
Amazing - a 20th century composition that actually sounds like music! My compliments!
my FAVOURITE scene for any Adams opera 🖤🖤🖤
Fascinating.
And what a demanding soprano role.
My thought exactly lol, when I listen to this I realise how vocally demanding this piece actually is. The jump around notes are no joke here
it is sounds so totalitarian and destructive and dramatic. i like it
The very best Madam Mao ever...I'm not sure I won't be able to guess the other sopranos who can take this role as superb as like her! You guys Just listen to her high notes at the finale parts! It's a kind of revolution.You can feel the Aura of Perfact matching with this Role.Speechless...
정말 최고의 장칭. 닉슨 인 차이나에서 장칭을 제대로 연기한 소프라노는 적어도 나에게는 캐슬린 선생님 한 분 뿐. 거의 접신에 가까운 캐릭터 해석력...
6:04 gives you goosebumps, if you consider how much Zhou Enlai and Jiang Qing hated each others' guts during the whole Cultural Revolution.
A brilliant performance. A brilliant opera.
Wonderful! We understand absolutelly everything she sings. Lovely voice!
Thanks for sharing the video with the subtitles.
Amazing actress... One of the greatest modern arias for high sopranos.
Being as this is my favorite opera (thanks in no small part to Alice Goodman's stunningly beautiful libretto), I'm going to have to disagree with calls to have it scaled down to resemble West Side Story. The final moment in this scene-where Madame Mao and Chou En-Lai stand staring one another down-is one of the strongest moments from this production (IMHO). Kathleen Kim is such a delightfully nasty and arrogant Madame Mao!
Is that Zhou En-lai? I thought that was kissinger.
Maravillosa! Porqué no la conocía? Excelente soprano de coloratura… me pareció escuchar en una parte sin legato que en esas notas tan altísimas tiene que ser difícil, muy difícil. La Reina de la Noche… La misma arrogancia y el deseo de control ( levanta el libro rojo de Mao). A mí me parece brillante… podría ser la parte más difícil y ella la hace suya. Me fascina
I really wish they had mimed the ending as was done in the original Houston Opera production. All the cries, moans, and screams end up being less disturbing than simply showing the action with the music.
Opera/drama and poetry are the only arenas in which I actually prefer modernism to classicism.
I've seen her life as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor at Sarasota Opera in 2012. She was phenomenal in that as well!
That's a high D in case you were wondering.
Amazing.
Kathleen Kim is absolutely terrifying in her role as Jiang Qing. Incredibly believable. I'm almost frightened and I know she's just an actress!
Magnificent!! All the performance!!!
I am seeing Sumi Jo in this role in Paris in April. This performance will certainly be a tough act to follow. Ms. Kim is awesome.
Talk about a FORCE OF NATURE!! Just magnificent singing actress! OMG she's SO EXCELLENT!
I can hardly believe those high notes are possible. And with such intensity!
wonderful voice !!
Oh, and it looks like nine people haven't read The Book! The Book! The Book! Book! Book! Book!
*25
It’s just so fucking dope. What a performance
Fantastic performance.
Great performance! John Adam's work is also so great.
Beautiful soprano!
Stunning!
Fabulous, electrifying.
I’m never going to read the word book the same again 😂
Boo-ookkkkkkkk
JOY!!! JOY!!! JOY!!!
The booOk!! boooOOk!! boooOOk!!!
Yet there are many more composers who can appreciate the beauty of Adam's style, especially from a cinematic-composition perspective; it's just so dynamic and powerful, it transcends the traditional notions of 'program music'. I cannot help but hold my breath for the last minute with the powerful juxtaposition of the motifs, fast and slow. It takes a skilled musician to denounce a style, but a great musician to appreciate it with an open mind, even if it does not suit them. ;)
(cont'd) that has increasingly come to shape world events in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this and other ways Adams' music and Goodman's text - a work, if you care to read it, of extraordinary poetic and philosophical depth - have proved to be, as Pat Nixon says in Act II, truly "prophetic". I can understand, of course, that the piece is not for everyone, but you'd be better off educating yourself than making callously dismissive comments.
Brilliant..... Bravo..
I wasn't sure I would "buy" Kathleen Kim in the role...I'll always see her as Olympia from Hoffmann. But man. Terrifying.
I really do enjoyed. Yes, I really am . With me, the "RED BOOK" is a meaningful. It 's a really
a big icon, that's bringing the fire from hell upon the earth. And, after Mao and the other of their leaders has passed aways and now Mr Xi JinPing has been continuing doing the same way, but they are still singing :" peaceful ! peaceful ! peaceful !!! " (?).
Viva China !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many Thanks to Composer and all the artists who have been well done the lovely work. TKH.
In your opinion, that is.
I think the music is perfect.
Why Gillian Anderson's Margaret Thatcher on the background? 😂
Kathleen Kim delivered this horrific and difficult aria like it's not hard!
Amazing English diction, and an absolutely gorgeous voice. That high D was so secure and comfortable! Just wish she had a bit more metal in her voice for this music. Sounded a bit Bel Canto, but I guess she just is a perfectly trained singer, simply incapable of sounding harsh.
a modern masterpiece along with Akanaten.
A tour de force. 👏👏
*Philip Glass* have Akhnaten; *John Adams* have Nixon in China.
Modern coloratura. I like it. I like it alot!!!!
"I was Mao;s attack dog! When he said, "Bite!" I bit! From the trial transcript of Jiang Quing (Mme. Mao) This rather captures that truth.
Wow, it is just like Roman Catholic catechism class, as I experienced it...
JOY. JOY. JOY.
brilliant
Wonderful. Why didn´t they make a dvd out of this? Would by a shitload of money for that.
this is fucking badass
演义的不错。
The book!! The book!! The book!! Wow those high D's!!
wow
Quite.
🔥🔥🔥
The most accurate dressing and look I've seen! Really similar to Chiang Qing in her later years. Moreover, Kathleen Kim parades the stage like a dictator, raging and "educating". She doesn't even try to hide her twisting of reality in the words "at the breast of history, I sucked and *pissed* ". One thing that I didn't like is that she didn't pronounce the word "Blind" like the words before it and after it, but that's nitpicking. Overall, this deserves to be the reference performance for years to come.
Edit: In addition, this is one of the least racist representations of China in the whole of opera.
I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung... I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung, who raised the weak, above the strong!
When I appear, the people hung. When I appear the people hung upon my rights. And for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy 'round my neck, and for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy round my neck, I speak according to the book! The book! The Book! The Book!
When did the Chinese people last expose it's daughters? When did the Chinese people last expose it's daughters? At the breasts of history, I sucked and pissed, thoughtless and heartless, red and blind, I cut my teeth across the land, and when I walk, my feet were bound on Revolution!
Let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, and I shall taste eternal joy. Let me be a grain of sand in Heaven's eye, and I shall taste eternal joy!
Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!
I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung. I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung, who raise the weak above the strong. When I appear, the people hang... When I appear people hang upon my rights. And for his sake, whose 'reaths ring heavy round my neck.
And for his sake, I speak according to the book! The book! The book! The book! The book! The book!
I speak according to the book, I speak according to the book, I speak according to the book, the book, the book, the book, the book, the book!
Wow, that's scary. But she sure can roll those R's.
Wonderfully beautiful and scary simultaneously
Pat Nixon is everything!
The best aria in what I find, unfortunately, to be quite a tedious opera. I wanted to like it so much when it finally was performed at SF Opera a few years ago. Not so much.
+Matthew Travisano It's a shame you feel that way because a lot of people don't.
I didn't find it tedious and I did hear it with her in it.
I don't really understand what's happening in the video, but that wife of Mao is surely a loud one.
i'm kind of reversed. i saw this performance before she being Olympia. So the transition is rather smooth. Both are great!!
That was exactly what the damning life looked like under Mao’s reign.
My feelings about this music are much the same as those I experience with a lot of modern art. I understand and appreciate it as political or "message" art. Kim is brilliant with an incredible voice and great acting skills. The staging is spot on. But the music doesn't stir my soul. I can't feel the beauty of it.
But "Ombra Mai Fu" gives me wings to soar with the angels.
Music isn't always supposed to be pretty, even within classical music. Especially in a part of an opera where a character is glorifying China's Cultural Revolution. I find it rather stirring, and the staging reflects the frenetic energy and turmoil through the lens of the Americans
N Fung Nate stop commenting on videos I'm watching
The music stirs my soul, and it isn't in a pretty way, I heard two pieces so far and it gives me this disturbing feeling I can't explain. A darkness... and I guess this is exactly what he is trying to express through the music, so I am totally in awe. But this is too heavy for me to sit through i guess.... i'd rather to listen to really joyful music :)
I forgot whose wife she is!?
I kind of like this Crazed Piano Mother version of Mao Tse Tung's wife.
This song is such a bitch to sing, y’all. Absolutely amazing, but so terribly tough.
My wife lived through this-- this is the real thing, the terror of the Cultural Revolution.
0:36 character in light colored suit being throttled by madam Mao. Is he a representation of french colonialism or Kai-Shek?
Let's quote from Mao's Little Red Book
@@MCP-MZT How's that working for the Uighurs?
The different versions of this aria are the only opera videos where idiots aren't arguing over sopranos
我的老天呐！这剧演的久了，演员都会演出内伤了吧~~~