The Metropolitan Opera’s popular award-winning series of live transmissions will continue locally at the Ulster Performing Arts Center (UPAC) in Kingston this Saturday, February 12 at 1 p.m. with a simulcast of the highly praised new production of John Adams’ Nixon in China. The Metropolitan Opera presents its first-ever performances of Nixon in China with the opera’s composer, John Adams, conducting his own score. The Met’s new production, staged by internationally acclaimed director Peter Sellars, will star James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, a role that he created at the opera’s world premiere in 1987 and has performed at leading opera houses around the world. Also featured are Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon, Kathleen Kim as Chiang Ch’ing, Robert Brubaker as Mao Tse-tung, Russell Braun as Chou En-lai and Richard Paul Fink as Henry Kissinger.

Adams, who has conducted his works with many major orchestras, will make his Met debut as conductor; his opera Doctor Atomic had its Met premiere in a well-reviewed 2008 production. Maddalena has sung the Nixon role on many of the world’s leading stages, including the English National Opera, Netherlands Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Washington Opera and the Théâtre du Châtelet. Kelly, who also starred in the recent English National Opera revival of the opera, is making her Met debut as Pat Nixon.

Met star Kathleen Kim, who won critical plaudits for her Zerbinetta and Olympia in recent seasons, will take on the challenging coloratura role of Chiang Ch’ing, the forbidding and formidable wife of Mao Tse-tung. Brubaker has sung in many 20th-century works at the Met including Moses und Aron, The Makropoulos Case, Peter Grimes and the Met premiere of Busoni’s Doktor Faust. Braun is best-known to Met audiences for his Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which he sang in 2000, 2003 and 2007. Fink, who also sings Alberich in Robert Lepage’s new production of Das Rheingold this March, sang principal roles in the Met premieres of Adams’ Doctor Atomic and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby.

The opera’s libretto is by American poet Alice Goodman, who also collaborated with Adams and Sellars on the opera The Death of Klinghoffer. The Met’s production will feature the work of the world premiere’s design team, including set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Dunya Ramicova, lighting designer James F. Ingalls and choreographer Mark Morris.

The Bardavon and two local restaurants are also partnering on a special opportunity for opera-lovers to be nourished by knowledge and great food. Prior to each Saturday-afternoon opera broadcast, ticketholders are invited to enjoy a prix fixe three-course lunch, followed by an insightful talk on that day’s production led by Leslie Gerber, who is a music teacher at Marist College’s Center for Lifetime Studies and author of all Hudson Valley Philharmonic Playbill liner notes. The Artist’s Palate, located at 307 Main Street in Poughkeepsie, (845) 483-8074, hosts lunches prior to broadcasts at the Bardavon. Frank Guido’s Little Italy, located at 14 Thomas Street in Kingston, (845) 340-1682, hosts for UPAC broadcasts. Please call the restaurants directly to make reservations.

Tickets for the Saturday, February 12 presentation of “The Met: Live in HD” Adams’ Nixon in China at UPAC in Kingston are available at the UPAC box office at 602 Broadway in Kingston, (845) 339-6088; the Bardavon box office at 35 Market Street in Poughkeepsie, (845) 473-2072; and through TicketMaster, (800) 745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com. Seats are $23 for adults, $21 for Bardavon members, $16 for children age 12 and under. For further information, please visit www.bardavon.org.