Nixon in China (opera) - List of Arias and Musical Sequences

Act 1

• Orchestral introduction
• "Soldiers of heaven hold the sky" (Chorus)
• "The people are the heroes now" (Chorus)
• Arrival of the Spirit of '76 (Orchestra)
• "Your flight was smooth, I hope?" (Chou, Nixon)
• "News has a kind of mystery" (Nixon, Chou, Kissinger)
• "I can't talk very well" (Mao, Nixon, Chou, Kissinger, secretaries)
• "We no longer need Confucius" (Mao and secretaries)
• "Like the Ming Tombs" (Nixon, Mao, Chou, Kissinger, secretaries)
• "The night is young" (Nixon, Pat, Chou, Kissinger, chorus)
• "Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, we have begun to celebrate..." (Chou)
• "Mr Premier, distinguished guests, I have attended many feasts..." (Nixon)
• "This is the hour!" (Nixon, Chou, Pat, Kissinger, chorus)

Act 2

• "I don't daydream and I don't look back" (Pat)
• "Look down, look down" (Chorus, Pat, secretaries)
• "This is prophetic" (Pat)
• "At last the weather's warming up" (Pat and chorus)
• The Red Detachment of Women:-
  • "Young as we are" (Secretaries)
  • "Oh what a day (Kissinger (as Lao Szu), chorus, secretaries)
  • "Whip her to death" (Kissinger (as Lao Szu), Pat, Nixon)
  • Tropical storm (Orchestra, Pat, Nixon)
  • "Flesh rebels" (Chorus)
  • "I have my brief" (Kissinger (as Lao Szu), Nixon)
  • "It seems so strange" (Chorus, Chiang Ch'ing, Pat, Nixon, secretaries)
• "I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung" (Chiang Ch'ing, chorus)

Act 3

• Orchestral introduction
• "Some men you cannot satisfy" (Kissinger, Nixon, Pat, Chou, Chiang Ch'ing)
• "I am no one" (Mao, Chou, Kissinger, Chiang Ch'ing, Pat, Nixon
• "Sitting around the radio" (Nixon, Pat)
• "Let us examine what you did" (Mao, Chiang Ch'ing, Chou)
• "I have no offspring" (Chou, Mao, Chiang Ch'ing
• "I can keep still" (Chiang Ch'ing, Nixon, Pat, Chou, Mao)
• "Peking watches the stars" (Chiang Ch'ing, Mao, Chou)
• "You won at poker" (Pat, Nixon, Chiang Ch'ing)
• "I am old and I cannot sleep" (Chou En-lai)