The Met: Live in HD on February 12

FRYEBURG — "Nixon in China" will be broadcast live at the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center on Saturday, February 12 at 1 p.m. “All of my operas have dealt on deep psychological levels with our American mythology,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams, whose most famous opera has its Met premiere. “The meeting of Nixon and Mao is a mythological moment in world history, particularly American history.”

Acclaimed director and longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars makes his Met debut with this groundbreaking 1987 work, an exploration of the human truths beyond the headlines surrounding President Nixon’s historic 1972 encounter with Mao and Communist China. Baritone James Maddalena stars as Nixon, a role he created to widespread acclaim. "Nixon in China," Sellars says, “shows you what opera can do to history, which is to deepen it and move into its more subtle, nuanced and mysterious corners.”

Tickets are $26 for adults, $23 for seniors and $18 for students. They may be ordered through the Box Office by calling 935-9232 or on-line at www.fryeburgacademy.org. Approximate running time is three hours, and 40 minutes. Casting is subject to change without notice.

The Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center is located at 18 Bradley St. in Fryeburg.