Showing posts with label Henry the K. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry the K. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Did someone say Air Force One?

Of course I have seen it fly by, I mean, who hasn't, right? But those words triggered a reminder of one of my favorite operas, Nixon in China, written by John Adams. Now this Adams fellow is not a good person, and most of his work is easily ignored, but he hired a decent librettist and wrote his little fingers to the bone with his quill pen when he put these notes together, and for whatever reason I like this opera.

I was lying on my sofa thirty years ago, halfway napping, when there came a tapping, oops, wrong poem, when I heard this music, I opened my eyes and there was AF1 landing in a way that no normal plane has ever safely landed. No normal non-VTOL airplane, anyway.

Without further preamble, here it is: