Opera Australia will perform at Vivid Live for the first time this year with a concert of contemporary music including the Sydney premiere of John Adams’s The Nixon Tapes, programmed to celebrate the composer’s 70th birthday this year.

Opera Australia will perform John Adams’ The Nixon Tapes as part of Vivid Live. Picture courtesy of Opera Australia

Vivid Live is part of Vivid Sydney, the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas, which will illuminate the city over 23 nights from May 26 to June 17. The music programme, Vivid Live, takes place over various venues including the Sydney Opera House, Carriageworks and City Recital Hall, and this year features a line-up of more than 250 events.

The Nixon Tapes comprises four semi-staged scenes from Adams’ debut 1987 opera Nixon in China about Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China – which Nixon himself described as “the week that changed the world”. Peter Sellars’ original 1987 production of the three-act opera was staged at the Adelaide Festival in 1992, and Victorian Opera staged it in 2013 but Nixon in China has never been produced in Sydney.

The Nixon Tapes will be performed by...