Henry Kissinger (1923-2023) Obituary Reactions Life in Photos Key Moments 2011 Interview

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       When Henry Kissinger Became an Opera Character

       In 1987, “Nixon in China” meditated on what was then recent history, depicting Kissinger as a smooth diplomat with a brutal side.

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       Richard Paul Fink, center in dark suit, as Henry Kissinger in “Nixon in China” at the Metropolitan Opera in 2011. Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

       By Zachary Woolfe

       Nov. 30, 2023

       Henry Kissinger, the polarizing diplomat who died on Wednesday at 100, received copious distinctions over his long career. But one of the most unusual — an honor that was also damning — came in 1987, when he joined Mozart’s Figaro and Puccini’s Tosca as a character in an opera.

       “Nixon in China,” composed by John Adams and directed by Peter Sellars, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, was inspired by President Richard M. Nixon’s epoch-making 1972 trip to China. Kissinger’s secret shuttling had paved the way for the visit, which helped normalize relations between the two countries after a long period without diplomatic ties.

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       Zachary Woolfe became The Times’s classical music critic in 2022, after serving as classical music editor since 2015. Prior to joining The Times, he was the opera critic of the New York Observer. More about Zachary Woolfe

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