Connection to the Story: The opera begins on an airfield outside of Peking. A contingent of the Chinese army, navy and air force marches onto the stage and sings a 1930s Red Army song, “The Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention.”

Connection to the Story: Nixon idealistically sings about the future of all nations’ youth. With this piece, he reminds those in the present of their unaccomplished dreams.

Connection to the Story: Nixon and Chou-En-lai toast each other, then to Mrs. Nixon. Caught up in the spirit of friendship, the banqueters go from table to table toasting one another.

Connection to the Story: Mrs. Nixon is taken on tour by a party of guides and journalists. At the Gate of Longevity and Goodwill she pauses to sing of an idyllic future in which “luxury dissolves into the atmosphere like a perfume.”

Connection to the Story: Chou-En-lai has the last word, wondering “How much of what we did was good?” as the opera concludes with simple scales stretched into broken chords, and finally, silence.