# Need Help Tracking Down a Piece



## RicolaPopcorn (Aug 20, 2009)

Hello everybody,

So I'll start with the story: I was flying back to the States from Brasil on Continental when I stumbled onto the classical audio channel. Being played on this channel was a really wacky opera (Well, orchestra + singer, so I assume it was opera) that I vowed to remember the name of and have now completely forgotten. I was dearly hoping that someone on some musical forum could help me with this, so here I am asking!

The best description I can give is as follows:

The words being sung were in english, by a solo male singing in the bass-baritone / baritone range and went along a progression along the lines of:

"Time is history"
"History is a [/has an aire of?] mystery"
"Music is mystery [/history?]"

All in all the vocals were pretty wacky, and the melodies were slightly unusual. There's a notable (and pretty impressive) passage where the singer shifts a sustained note down an octave and then back up, several times in succession.

The whole piece was very major and very grandiose, very majestic. Strong singing.

I wouldn't go as far as to say the piece was modernly composed from what I remember but I think it was recorded mid-20th century or later. Whatever it is, it's managed to elude me despite some relatively in-depth searching. I also tried looking on Continental's site for a copy of their magazine, as it lists the tracks played on the audio channels, but hit nothing.


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

Could be one of John Adams' operas - Nixon in China maybe. No way to be sure though!


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## RicolaPopcorn (Aug 20, 2009)

That's it, Nixon In China, Act 1 Scene 1, "News Has A Kind Of Mystery"

Guess I was pretty off with the libretto memories. Thanks a bunch!


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

It's a fantastic piece I think - and I don't normally enjoy opera.

Glad to be of assistance!


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