Not gonna lie; this was terrifying! What an intensity and drama! What a terrific job by Kathleen Kim

One of the great soprano arias in all the high coloratura literature. An amazing opera and a triumph of 20th century composition.

I lack the knowledge to judge on opera- but what I can say, is that Kathleen Kim has all the ruthlessness, the rage, and ideological fanaticism needed for a figure as horrific as Jiang Qing. Well done!

I saw this, like, 10 years ago and I can still hear her singing the BoOoOOOOK! BoOoOk! BooOOOOkkkkk!!!! 😱. What a chilling performance, and a mastery vocal gymnastics. Absolutely breathtaking.

this is a rockin performance. I'm a big JA fan, although this is not my favorite of his pieces, but this and the opening chorus are, in my opinion, as good as opera gets. I love how he set the line " when I appear the people hang on my every word", so that the first time she sings it, it's "when I appear the people hang." How true that was.

I saw the original production when it came to Brooklyn, and when the curtains suddenly parted to show the gigantic portrait of Mao--dwarfing the ballet performers and the Nixons below them--it was such a genuinely eerie moment. And then the aria began...

Kathleen Kim was born to sing this role. I saw this production at the Met in February 2011 and my heart was POUNDING throughout this entire scene. Brava!

That's a high D in case you were wondering.

Being as this is my favorite opera (thanks in no small part to Alice Goodman's stunningly beautiful libretto), I'm going to have to disagree with calls to have it scaled down to resemble West Side Story. The final moment in this scene-where Madame Mao and Chou En-Lai stand staring one another down-is one of the strongest moments from this production (IMHO). Kathleen Kim is such a delightfully nasty and arrogant Madame Mao!

This Peter Sellars staging has evolved so much from the 1986 premiere, I saw it in 1990 and this is much more chaotic and frightening, yet clearer musically and dramaturgically. The singer playing her is so much better. And it's amazing that this actually happened--the Nixons and Kissenger et al. were forced to watch a performance of Mrs. Mao's "The Red Detachment of Women" ballet. The opera seems to embody how bizarre such a culture clash might have been.

What a banger! She deserved a standing ovation for that performance.

This song is strangely addictive. Like most modern music I found it so bizarre at first but I just needed to revisit it. Now I can’t get it out of my head so I will have to start learning it…and this version will for sure be my template. Simply spectacular!

It's the greatest performance in all the history of opera, I think.

John Adams secured his very high place in the world of music with this opera, and with this aria in particular. Just stunning.

She is such an actress with such firm technique and beautiful voice 🙇‍♀️ Bow ❤ People should watch more of this!!!!!! What an intense opera wow 👍👍

Extraordinary, both the music and the voice of Kathleen Kim.

An absolutely indelible performance in one of the greatest operas of the 20th century. I just keep coming back to this scene. She brings tears to my eyes every time.

One of the finest arias in the entire opera repertoire.

After this performance I can't listen to anyone else! When I'm listening to this opera on Spotify, I switch to KZread for this aria only, and then switch back to Spotify xD

Opera/drama and poetry are the only arenas in which I actually prefer modernism to classicism.