Nixon in China

Though baritone James Maddalena (singing Nixon) was not in good voice, the Met's debut of John Adams' Nixon in China was thoroughly engrossing.   Since last night my thoughts have returned repeatedly to three moments in the opera, which I'll just mention quickly for now in the hope of elaborating further on them tomorrow.  First, Nixon's's lines at the start (perhaps among the best known of the libretto):    
News, news, news, news, news, news, news has a kind of mystery, mystery, mystery
When I shook hands with Chou En-lai
On this bare field outside Peking
Just now, the world was listening, listening, listening
These lines are sung in a staccato that conveys Nixon's excited self-importance but that also hints at a stutter, recalling to me themes of anxiety, guilt, fear, and self-censorship from Melville's Billy Budd (which I'm rereading right now for other reasons).
Second, the repetitive hum shot through with fleeting lyric fragments accompanying many busy scenes filled with people--Americans, Chinese, soldiers, dancers, diplomats, banqueters, street-cleaners.  No sound in an opera house is, I think, so utterly demotic.
Third, Pat Nixon's remark (beautifully sung as wry, comical, and sympathetic all at once) "This is prophetic," lifted from her recorded comments during a tour of Peking: the line ripped her character out of the playbook I'd at first thought she'd been plugged into, the reluctant First Lady, and gave her an heroic, almost biblical dimension.
Just a start, since I'm still on post-concussion hours.