Doctor Atomic

John Adams
Operas Nixon in China (1987) The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995) El Niño (2000) Doctor Atomic (2005) A Flowering Tree (2006)
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Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb (the "Trinity" test) was being prepared. A documentary was made about the creation of the opera, titled Wonders Are Many (2007).

Composition history

The first act takes place about a month before the bomb is to be tested, and the second act is set in the early morning of July 16, 1945 (the day of the test). During the second act, time frequently slows down for the characters and then snaps back into reality. The opera ends in the final, prolonged moment before the bomb is detonated. Although the original commission for the opera suggested that U.S. physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," be fashioned as a twentieth-century Doctor Faustus, Adams and Sellars deliberately attempted to avoid this characterization.

The work centers on key players in the Manhattan Project, especially Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and also features Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert's wife, and her anxiety over her husband's project. Sellars adapted the libretto from primary historical sources. The libretto also quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, songs of the Tewa, the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Muriel Rukeyser.

Doctor Atomic is similar in style to previous Adams operas Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, both of which explored the characters and personalities that were involved in historical incidents, rather than a re-enactment of the events themselves.

The libretto

Much of the text from the opera was adapted from declassified U.S. government documents and communications among the scientists, government officials, and military personnel who were involved in the project. Other borrowed texts include poetry by Charles Baudelaire, John Donne, and Muriel Rukeyser, the Bhagavad Gita, and a traditional Tewa Indian song. Marvin Cohen, head of the American Physical Society, criticized some parts of the libretto for not being strictly scientifically correct, in particular the original opening lines (below).^[1]

The opening chorus originally began with the following excerpt from the 1945 Smyth Report:

"Matter can be neither created nor destroyed but only altered in form.

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed but only altered in form."

Subsequently to Cohen's criticism, Adams rewrote the opening chorus, so that it now reads:^[2]

We believed that

"Matter can be neither

created nor destroyed

but only altered in form."

We believed that

"Energy can be neither

created nor destroyed

but only altered in form."

But now we know that

energy may become matter,

and now we know that

matter may become energy

and thus be altered in form.

Act 1 concludes with an aria sung by Oppenheimer with text from Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three person’d God; For you

As yet but knock, breathe, knock, breathe, knock, breathe

Shine, and seek to mend;

Batter my heart, three person’d God;

That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force, to break, blow, break, blow, break, blow

burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt town, to another due,

Labor to admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue,

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy,

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

The Act 2, scene iii chorus, borrowed from the Bhagavad Gita (translated into English by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood) reads:

At the sight of this, your Shape stupendous,

Full of mouths and eyes, feet, thighs and bellies,

Terrible with fangs, O master,

All the worlds are fear-struck, even just as I am.

When I see you, Vishnu, omnipresent,

Shouldering the sky, in hues of rainbow,

With your mouths agape and flame-eyes staring—

All my peace is gone; my heart is troubled.

Act 2 is peppered with a repeated refrain from Pasqualita, the Oppenheimers' Tewa Indian housemaid. The text comes from a traditional Tewa song, and subsequent reiterations repeat the text with the direction changed to west, east, and south:

In the north the cloud-flower blossoms

And now the lightning flashes

And now the thunder clashes

And now the rain comes down! A-a-aha, a-a-aha, my little one.

Performance history

San Francisco premiere

The original San Francisco Opera production was directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Donald Runnicles, with choreography by Lucinda Childs. It featured Richard Paul Fink as Edward Teller, Gerald Finley as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Glenn as Robert Wilson, Kristine Jepson as Kitty Oppenheimer, Eric Owens as General Leslie Groves, James Maddalena as Jack Hubbard, Jay Hunter Morris as Captain James F. Nolan, Beth Clayton as the Oppenheimers' Tewa maid Pasqualita, and Seth Durant as Peter Oppenheimer (Robert Oppenheimer's son). Sets were designed by Adrianne Lobel, costumes by Dunya Ramicova, lighting by James F. Ingalls, and sound by Mark Grey.

Kitty Oppenheimer's aria, "Easter Eve, 1945", by Muriel Rukeyser (from her poem of the same name) was premiered by Audra McDonald in May, 2004 with the New York Philharmonic and Adams conducting. Two extracts from the work were performed in London in August 2004, conducted by John Adams as part of the 2004 Proms season.

Subsequent productions

In June 2007 this production made its European première at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. It then opened in December 2007 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, again directed by Sellars, with Finley and Owens reprising their roles. Adams and Sellars made "some significant changes" to the opera and production in response to feedback from the San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Chicago productions.^[3]

A new production of the opera, directed by the film director Penny Woolcock and conducted by Alan Gilbert, was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in October 2008 and was part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series on 8 November 2008. The HD video of the production was later televised nationally on PBS as well, in the Great Performances at the Met series. On January 17, 2009, the Met production of the opera was heard on NPR as part of the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. Penny Woolcock's production was restaged by the English National Opera in London, February 25 – March 20, 2009 with Gerald Finley reprising his portrayal of the lead.^[4]

On 21 and 23 November 2008, Gerald Finley and most of the Met cast reprised their roles with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, in a semi-staged production by James Alexander. Soprano Jessica Rivera and contralto Meredith Arwady performed the roles of Kitty Oppenheimer and Pasqualita, respectively.

The first production of the opera in Germany will have its première on February 13, 2010 at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, October 1, 2005 (Conductor: Donald Runnicles)
J. Robert Oppenheimer	baritone	Gerald Finley
Kitty Oppenheimer	mezzo-soprano or soprano	Kristine Jepson
Gen Leslie Groves	bass	Eric Owens
Edward Teller	dramatic baritone	Richard Paul Fink
Robert R. Wilson	tenor	Thomas Glenn
Jack Hubbard	baritone	James Maddalena
Captain James Nolan	tenor	Jay Hunter Morris
Pasqualita	mezzo-soprano or contralto	Beth Clayton

Adams had written the role of Kitty Oppenheimer for the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. However, she was unable to commit to the project due to her health (she died soon after the work premiered). The work was sung in the world premiere by mezzo Kristine Jepson. For the second major production, at De Nederlandse Opera, Adams reworked the role for a soprano, Jessica Rivera. For the Metropolitan Opera Premiere, the role was again sung by a mezzo, Sasha Cooke.

Doctor Atomic Symphony

In 2007, Adams adapted the opera into the Doctor Atomic Symphony. Music was taken from the overture, various interludes and orchestral settings were made of arias like Oppenheimer's signature "Batter My Heart." The work was first premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by John Adams on August 21, 2007, at a BBC Proms concert. The work was later performed at Carnegie Hall in Spring 2008. Originally composed in four movements and lasting 45 minutes, the symphony was revised by Adams to just three movements (played without a break) and 25 minutes' length. A recording of this version was released by Nonesuch Records on July 20, 2009.^[5][6]

Recording

2008 DVD widescreen DTS sound; or Blu-ray widescreen Dolby True HD sound with Gerald Finley as J. Robert Oppenheimer; conductor: Lawrence Renes; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus; Studio: Opus Arte

See also

• Copenhagen (play)

Notes

1. ^ "Libretto takes liberties with fundamental physics: Professor's technical concerns fall on deaf ears." The Berkeleyan. 22 September 2005
2. ^ Doctor Atomic libretto
3. ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "Doctor Atomic: Tweaking a Definitive Moment in History." New York Times. December 17, 2007 (Retrieved 9 February 2009)
4. ^ English National Opera
5. ^ http://www.earbox.com/W-doctoratomic-symphony.html
6. ^ http://www.earbox.com/W-doctoratomic.html

References

• Alex Ross, "Onwards and upward with the arts: Countdown: John Adams and Peter Sellars create an atomic opera", The New Yorker, October 3, 2005, pp. 60–71.
• Matthew Westphal, "Met and ENO to Collaborate on Productions of Adams's Doctor Atomic, New Golijov Opera", Playbill Arts, August 15, 2007

External links

• Doctor Atomic official site
• Libretto
• The Making of the Doctor Atomic Libretto – Details the sources and quotes in the libretto
• Detailed Synopsis
• Scene-by-Scene Plot
• The Characters
• Historical Personalities of Doctor Atomic
• The Manhattan Project
• Doctor Atomic reviews from ionarts
• "Doctor Atomic: Commentary on an Opera" the San Francisco Exploratorium
• Wonders Are Many (2007 documentary) The making of the opera and preparation for its San Francisco debut)] (IMDb page)
• Essay for Metropolitan Opera production by Thomas May
• Doctor Atomic Symposium at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
• Voices of the Manhattan Project, from the New York Times