The three-act opera opens with Air Force One, carrying Nixon and his group, landing in Beijing and being greeted by former premier Zhou Enlai. Then, Nixon meets Mao for a long conversation about philosophy and politics. The banquet that follows is marked by toasts between Zhou and Nixon.

After the show's first intermission, Nixon and his wife are shown visiting a glass factory, a pig farm, a primary school, the Summer Palace and the Ming Tomb, in Beijing. In the evening, they are treated to a performance of The Red Detachment of Women.

Sellars then arranges to have the Nixons involved in the plot after they watch the heroine, Wu Qionghua, beaten by the ruthless landlord Nan Ba Tian.

You may be able to tell that while Kissinger, the only one alive today among all the characters in the opera, is popular among Chinese, he is surely not a favorite of Sellars, who gives him just a few lines and a relatively minor part to play.

Sellars has injected some profound meaning in the opera when the Red Army officer Hong Changqing rescues Wu Qionghua. Hong reaches out his arm and finds Nixon handing a gun to him. Nixon's wife Pat brushes his hand aside and hands over a glass of juice. That juice helps resuscitate Wu.

Sellars explains this shows that Americans have an interventionist policy and arm groups and countries they don't fully understand.

The final act of the three has a comedic and imaginative tone, and is when the major characters in the opera ponder what they have done in life.

Under Met's Live in HD Series program, Nixon in China will be broadcast live in hundreds of movie theaters worldwide on Feb 12.

While most operas focus on traditional themes, Sellars said Nixon in China features timely and important subject matter.

"There is no bigger topic in America. There were decades that you did not recognize one-fifth of the world's population. It's kind of incredible," Sellars says.

He said much of the material in the opera was not found in Kissinger's memoir and there were limited sources to understand what was going on in 1985, when the opera was written. Sellars described the opera as not just historical but, rather, a forward-looking piece.

"The art form of the historical novel is primarily not because you are obsessed with history, but you really want to find a path forward and understand where we are now," he says.

He praises Adams for creating a living art form and weaving a musical tapestry in which the destiny of Chinese and Americans is inseparable. "It is not their destiny to veer off and go in opposite directions," he says.

A director known for his interest in politics, Sellars says the character of Nixon, in the opera, was trying to lecture China, but now all the references take on new meanings.

"China is now our banker," he says.