I am the wife of Mao

My favorite aria from composer John Adams' and librettist Alice Goodman's "Nixon in China"--from the 2011 NY Metropolitan Opera production directed by Peter Sellars... featuring a ferocious, exhilarating powerhouse of a performance from Kathleen Kim as Madame Mao.

I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung
who raised the weak above the strong.
When I appear the people hang
upon my words,
and for his sake
whose wreaths are heavy round my neck
I speak according to the book.

When did the Chinese people last
expose its daughters?
At the breast of history I sucked and pissed,
thoughtless and heartless, red and blind,
I cut my teeth upon the land
and when I walked my feet were bound
on revolution.

Let me be
a grain of sand in heaven's eye
and I shall taste eternal joy.

I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung
who raised the weak above the strong.
When I appear the people hang
upon my words,
and for his sake
whose wreaths are heavy round my neck
I speak according to the book.