Doctor Atomic

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Work data
Original title: Doctor Atomic
Original language: English
Music: John Adams
Libretto : Peter Sellars
Premiere: October 1, 2005
Place of premiere: San Francisco Opera , San Francisco
Playing time: about 3 hours
Place and time of the action: Los Alamos National Laboratory ( New Mexico ), 1945
people

Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams in the post-minimalist style. Peter Sellars wrote the libretto. The premiere took place on October 1, 2005 at the San Francisco Opera . Set in 1945 in the US Los Alamos National Laboratory in the desert of New Mexico , the stage work deals with the emotional tensions and fears of the scientists, government officials and military personnel involved in the Manhattan Project during the preparations for the test of the first atomic bomb ( Trinity Test ). The factory design of Doctor Atomic is similar to the previously incurred Adams operas Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer . In Doctor Atomic , too , the composer explores the character traits and personalities of the key figures in a historical event. The historical events themselves move into the background. A documentary entitled Wonders Are Many was produced in 2007 about the genesis of the opera . The German premiere took place on February 13, 2010 in the Saarland State Theater in Saarbrücken .

action

The first act takes place about a month before the first atomic bomb test, the second act in the early morning of July 15, 1945, the day of the test. The work focuses on the key figures of the Manhattan Project , in particular Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves , but also deals with Oppenheimer's wife Kitty and her fears about her husband's activities. The internal and external emotional tensions intensify in the course of the second act and the upcoming bomb test. In some scenes, Adams depicts the protagonists' sense of time being greatly slowed down, which is in sharp contrast to the hectic hustle and bustle on the test site. The opera ends in the last, drawn out moment before the bomb explodes. Adams and Sellars do not portray the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb", as a modern Doctor Faust , but rather try to illuminate the figure psychologically more deeply.

libretto

Large parts of the opera text were adapted from approved US government documents and the correspondence of the scientists, government officials and military representatives involved in the project. Other parts of the text come from poems by Charles Baudelaire , John Donne and Muriel Rukeyser , the Bhagavad Gita and a traditional Tewa song. After the first performances, parts of the libretto by Adams and Sellars were subsequently changed. In doing so, they took account of the criticism of the then President of the American Physical Society , Marvin Cohen , who had criticized that parts of the libretto (especially the opening choir) were scientifically incorrect in essential points.

premiere

At the premiere in the San Francisco Opera led Peter Sellars directing. Donald Runnicles was the musical director . For the choreography was Lucinda Childs responsible. The cast of the leading roles were: Gerald Finley as Robert Oppenheimer , Richard Paul Fink as Edward Teller , 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 Pasqualita and Seth Durant as Peter Oppenheimer (Oppenheimer's son). The aria Easter Eve, 1945 (Kitty Oppenheimer) based on Muriel Rukeyser 's poem of the same name was premiered by Audra McDonald in May 2004 with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of John Adams. There are several versions of Kitty Oppenheimer's part - written by Adams himself - in soprano and mezzo-soprano arrangement.

Doctor Atomic Symphony

In 2007 Adams rewrote orchestral parts of the opera and arrangements of some arias (such as Oppenheimer's Batter My Heart ) to the purely orchestral Doctor Atomic Symphony . This work was premiered on March 16, 2007 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Robertson .

Later productions

After the first performances, Adams and Sellars made some significant changes to the factory and production.

Awards

The production by Yuval Sharon at the Karlsruhe State Theater in the 2013/2014 season received the Götz Friedrich Prize for directing.

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Libretto takes liberties with fundamental physics: Professor's technical concerns fall on deaf ears." The Berkeleyan. September 22, 2005
  2. Tommasini, Anthony. " Doctor Atomic : Tweaking a Definitive Moment in History." New York Times . December 17, 2007 (Retrieved February 9, 2009)