It’s been 40 years since President Richard M. Nixon arrived on Air Force One in Beijing for a weeklong visit with Mao Zedong that changed global politics. It’s been 25 years since John Adams’ opera “Nixon in China” (inspired by the 1972 journey) debuted at Houston Grand Opera — and now, finally, it has landed at San Francisco Opera with a production that delivers in so many ways.  Tonight’s opening performance at the War Memorial dazzled and entertained; and  it made you think about where we are today with the political setting.  But again, this is an opera and not Fox News.

The work underscores not just the personal and the private in these bigger-than-life figures — Richard and Pat Nixon, Chou En-lai, Chairman Mao and his wife — but also the vein of sadness that runs through Alice Goodman’s poetic libretto, the sense that life is a dream and that most big events are beyond our control.  The baritones were entertaining, but to me, the sopranos stole the show!  The evening’s most dazzling performance came from soprano Hye Jung Lee, just two years out of the Merola Opera Program, in a career-making triumph as Chiang Ch’ing (Madame Mao).  The stratospherically pitch-perfect aria “I Am the Wife of Chairman Mao” will be embedded in my mind for the next few weeks.  Soprano Maria Kanyova’s performance as Pat Nixon was spectacular!  Her voice and characterization are fresh-blooming; she makes one believe in the heartland goodness of the first lady.

I was at the edge of my seat with Act II aria “This is Prophetic!” Pat Nixon eloquently sings:  This is prophetic! I foresee a time will come when luxury dissolves into the atmosphere like a perfume, and everywhere. The simple virtues root and branch and leaf and flower. And on that bench there we’ll relax and taste the fruit of all our actions. Why regret life which is so much like a dream?

Alice Goodman libretto has brought a depth of meaning to this historic event, allowing the audience to experience history in a new and more revealing way. The lyrical way she weaves historic quotes with more subjective material is gripping, personal, and believable. I wish all history was interpreted this tenderly.  But it is the score by Adams — who lives in Berkeley and has waited a long time for this production of his most celebrated opera — that towers over all of it.  When Mr. Adams appears on stage, he received a thunderous and cheering standing ovation from a full opera house.  Ironically, four months after Nixon’s trip to China, burglars broke into the offices of Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington. But that’s another story. Maybe another Nixon opera…..