Opera is known for being larger than life, but set designer Erhard Rom has never had to make a Boeing 707 land on-stage before. In the opening scene of Nixon in China, he’ll do just that.

Besides the landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 Richard Nixons meeting with Chinas leader Mao Zedong in February 1972 then represented one of the biggest media spectacles in ...