The authority that he therefore brings to the part is immediately apparent. Singing the role of Oppenheimer is baritone Gerald Finley, who not only created the role at the San Francisco premiere but has also reprised it in several subsequent productions in Amsterdam, New York, and London. Robert Oppenheimer (dubbed the Manhattan Project).Ī DVD of the opera has previously been released of a Dutch production from 2007, but this is the first audio recording of the work, with the composer himself conducting. In his 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, he and regular collaborator Peter Sellars depict the events leading up to the testing in New Mexico of the first atomic bomb in 1945, focusing on the preparations for this by the various scientists led by J. With works such as Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and El Niño, John Adams is certainly no stranger to choosing controversial and politically sensitive topics for his operas. His opera The Flowering Tree, at the Jazz at Lincoln Center facility in 2009, was so flat-out beautiful I have yet to recover. Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,ĭivorce me, untie, or break that knot again,Įxcept you enthrall me, never shall be free,Īdams’ Nixon in China will be the next Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast, on Saturday, 2/12. Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,īut is captived, and proves weak or untrue. Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new. That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Atomic (about Robert Oppenheimer and the setting off of the first atomic bomb):īatter my heart, three-person’d God for youĪs yet but knock breathe, shine, and seek to mend John Donne’s plea in Holy Sonnet XIV that grace will break his captive will, set to necessarily inadequate but characteristically gorgeous music by John Adams and sung by bass-baritone Gerald Finley in the Adams opera Dr. Mockingbird’s resident opera aficionado Ken Wilson offers forth a truly breathtaking moment of beauty:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |