Costume designer Esther Hayes fits Barry Ryan into costume as Richard Nixon for Victorian Opera's upcoming production of Nixon in China. Picture: Aaron Francis. AS Barry Ryan gets into costume for his role as Richard Nixon, he reflects on the film actors who have also portrayed the former US president: Frank Langella, in the movie Frost/Nixon, and Anthony Hopkins in Nixon. Those actors, however memorable their impersonations, did not have to sing the part. Ryan, a baritone, has been cast as Nixon in a Melbourne production of the celebrated 1987 opera by John Adams, Nixon in China. "It needs an experienced singer of modern music to bring it off," says Ryan, describing the opera's difficult and dramatic music. I will know that I've had a day at the office. Ryan -- known to opera audiences for his roles in other contemporary works such as Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men, Brett Dean's Bliss and Richard Mills's Batavia -- was fitted out as Nixon this week by costume designer Esther Hayes. The opera depicts Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China that opened dialogue between communist China and the US after almost 25 years. It begins at the airport in Beijing with the arrival of the presidential jet, the Spirit of 76. Ryan says Nixon's first aria, News Has a Kind of Mystery, underscores the worldwide importance of Nixon's landing in Beijing, timed to coincide with the evening news in the US. "He is basically saying, 'This is going to change the world, and the whole world is watching me,' " Ryan says. The moment he shook hands with (then Chinese premier) Zhou Enlai, the world changed. Pat Nixon, Mao Zedong, Chiang Ch'ing and Henry Kissinger are also depicted in the opera. The libretto is by Alice Goodman and the first production was directed by Peter Sellars. Nixon visited China just months before the events of the Watergate scandal that would lead to his resignation as president in 1974. Ryan said the opera's creators had treated Nixon fairly, not as "Tricky Dicky." "There is a lot of debate about that, (but) I think they have," he said. In the opera I think he comes out of it reasonably well . . . The person who comes out of it the worst is Kissinger. Victorian Opera is presenting the second Australian run of Nixon in China after performances at the Adelaide Festival in 1992. It opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne on May 16, directed by Roger Hodgman and conducted by Fabian Russell. Also in the cast are Christopher Tonkin, Andrew Collis, Sally-Anne Russell, Dimity Shepherd, Emily Bauer-Jones, Bradley Daley, Tiffany Speight and Eva Jinhee Kong. Ryan says Nixon was a tough politician and an insecure man, but there was a lot to admire about him. "He opened up links with China, which was an incredible achievement at the time," he says.