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).

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Plot and production

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 15, 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 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.

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 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:



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



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





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



Act II 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 :

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 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.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, October 1, 2005 (Conductor: Donald Runnicles)
Robert Oppenheimer	baritone	Gerald Finley
Kitty Oppenheimer	mezzo-soprano or soprano	Kristine Jepson
General 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	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, Sascha Cooke.

Subsequent productions

In June 2007 this production made its European première at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, and was a great success. 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, 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.

Selected recording

2008 DVD widescreen DTS sound; with Gerald Finley as J. Robert Oppenheimer; conductor: Lawrence Renes; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus; Studio: Opus Arte

See also

• Copenhagen (play)

Footnotes

References

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