Nixon in China

How dare you, you know, pressure an ally who's just trying to defend themselves, you know, wet genocide, you know, the usual arguments.

But Trump benefited kind of from the Nixon in China phenomenon.

In other words, he could do something that was unpopular on the right because he was the right.

And there was nobody significant to the right of him.

That did happen.

Oh, well, you know, there was an opera, Nixon in China.

Yeah.

And I feel like the water is just providing us with our like deus ex machina, like our kind of like elemental force, like a Greek Kouragos that runs in the opera of Trump in America.

It's amazing how art can speak truth to power, even under oppression.

And Ross brings the story up to the late 20th century with Ligeti, Berio, and even John Adams' Nixon in China.

What emerges is music as a living art form, constantly responding to the world.

Ross makes these composers feel like real, flawed, brilliant people, and he describes the music so vividly that you want to hear it right away.

yeah

um Myself, my roommate, a college roommate texted me the other day, the Washington National Opera is performing Nixon in China.

Our listeners are like, what is that? What are you talking about? Let me tell you, my high school music history class made us listen to the soundtrack to this.

I was enthralled.