Nancy Reagan maid returned to work at the White House. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit Washington, D.C. since Nikita Khrushchev made the trip in 1959 at the height of the Cold War. Nancy was in charge of planning and hosting the important and highly anticipated state dinner, with the goal to impress both the Soviet leader and especially his wife Raisa Gorbacheva. After the meal, she recruited pianist Van Cliburn to play a rendition of "Moscow Nights" for the Soviet delegation, to which Mikhail and Raisa broke out into song. Secretary of State George P. Shultz
Rosa Raisa In Chicago she added Maddalena in "Andrea Chénier", Zina in de Gounzberg's "Le Vieil Aigle", "Isabeau" in the North American premiere of Mascagni's opera, Maliella in "'I gioielli della Madonna", "La Gioconda", Basiliola in Montemezzi's "La Nave", Puccini's "Suor Angelica", Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser", Minnie in "La Fanciulla del West", Leonora in "La forza del destino", Cio-Cio-San in "Madama Butterfly" (at the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago, also Giordano's "Fedora" at Ravinia), Toinette in Frank Harling's jazz opera "A Light From Saint Agnes", Rosalinde in an English-language "Die Fledermaus", and Conchita in Zandonai's opera of the same name. Raisa also, of course,