The score is littered with moments of unexpected beauty, whether it be the captivating, almost sensual way in which the female chorus describes how the bomb works by disturbing the stable nucleus of a plutonium atom in order to make it go supercritical ('We surround the plutonium core from thirty-two points spaced equally around its surface'), or the eerie harmonies as the chorus echoes Oppenheimer discussing the bomb's potential targets ('Kyoto. This might sound like somewhat unorthodox fodder for an operatic text, and indeed the libretto has come in for some criticism since the work's premiere (even the booklet notes on this release describe it as 'deceptively dry on the page'), but the textual banalities and detachment of all of these weather reports, explanations of atomic theory, and so on, are transcended by Adams's music, often to quite spellbinding effect. Adams's setting involves multiple repetitions of various lines from the sonnet, and the intensity and expression that Finley puts into each repetition is highly affecting, portraying magnificently Oppenheimer's sense of turmoil and moral conflict as he muses on whether or not he can go through with the test.Īs well as this excerpt from Donne, Sellars's libretto is largely compiled from various texts including poetry by Baudelaire and Muriel Rukeyser, extracts from the Bhagavad Gita (from which comes Oppenheimer's infamous quotation, on witnessing the first successful detonation on 16th July, 1945: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'), and, perhaps more unexpectedly, transcripts from several declassified US government documents and discussions between scientists and officials involved with the project. One of the highlights of both the opera and of Finley's performance is his aria from the very end of Act One, using the text of a John Donne sonnet, 'Batter my heart'. 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.

Batter my heart doctor atomic