I guess this music thread is on the fade, but I can't resist commenting on John Adams's opera "Nixon in China", since it has gotten mostly bad raps on this list.
I'm not sure what about the subject it is that Daniel finds awful, but the opera deals with an important and real recent historical event in a very insightful and at times hilarious way. The libretto is one of the most fascinating I have seen in a long time and contains some of the most serious discussions of Marxist ideology (of the Maoist variety) and of transitional economic/political questions in any opera. There is much foreboding of things that have come to pass, as well as a serious evocation of Mao's China, much of it surprisingly sympathetic (is that what you did not like, Daniel?).
At the same time there are some genuinely hilarious aspects, especially about the US characters. Henry Kissinger singing about how he will be on the evening news after he met with Chou Enlai is priceless. And Nixon confessing how he was against the Chinese just before everybody breaks into song about it being Washington's birthday is another scream. Much of the text is taken from actual historical dialogue from the visit, and some of the lines by Mao are quite amusing as well as interesting.
As for the music, I am not a big fan of minimalism, although some of it is OK. But I actually find some of this opera to be both beautiful and impressive musically. But I can also see that if one says that monotonous beats or monumentality constitute "fascist music", then this might qualify. But by now we probably all realize that much of popular music and a lot else besides qualifies as well under such a criterion.
Bottom line is that "Nixon in China" is worth seriously checking into, whatever it is. Barkley Rosser
Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu