Great opera shouldn’t date. History marches on, but we go to opera for universal emotions. John Adams’ 1987 "Nixon In China" is making its first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera. Groundbreaking when it debuted in Houston 24 years ago, does it seem outmoded now? To my mind, "Nixon" still feels fresh, still pointing toward the future.

We are in Beijing in 1972, and when President Richard M. Nixon’s airplane touches down on the tarmac for his historic visit to Communist China, the effect in the Met is similar: Two worlds have been bridged.

Originally, "Nixon In China" was dubbed, rather glibly, a “CNN opera.” While Adams and ingenious director Peter Sellars depict the diplomatic ritual as a media circus, they do so with a remarkable blend of reverence, irony and skepticism about the intermingling of radically different cultures.

The libretto by Alice Goodman is poetic, yet spiked with humor, like a political cartoon that morphs into an abstract painting. Director Peter Sellars and his crew of designers have reproduced the original look and staging of "Nixon," expanding to fill the larger dimensions of the Met.

The overall effect is an awesome mix of spectacle and musical excitement. Choreographer Mark Morris returns to add dynamic moves to the second-act opera-within-the-opera.

As Nixon, baritone James Maddalena makes his Met debut in the role he originated. Although his voice lacks some of the force it needs to get over John Adams’ fanfares and blasts of brass, his overall characterization is rich and layered: his Nixon is fallible, idealistic, haunted by a past he’s desperate to recreate.

The sound of Adams’ electrifying music bears a variety of influences, from Philip Glass’ minimalist repetitions to big-band brass blasts, Asian woodblock effects and more traditional coloratura writing, as in the hair-raising Act II aria, “I Am The Wife Of Mao Tse-Tung,” performed by the spectacular Kathleen Kim.

Although in the last 20 years, American opera has evolved, with works based on other historical and true-crime figures, "Nixon In China" remains a "great leap forward" and a shining, long overdue addition to the Met’s repertoire.