![]() ![]() In addition to its powerhouse orchestra, the opera has a sequence of electronic "soundscapes," densely interwoven washes of thunder and rainfall and the clash of metal on metal, or big-band singer Jo Stafford warbling amid the drone of bombers, all piped through a surround-sound system in the darkened theater. ![]() The chirpy ostinatos of Adams' early minimalist style show up from time to time. You could also hear strains of Kurt Weill's mordant dance tunes, as well as the pulsating intensity of Wagnerian love themes, often with a ghoulish harmonic twist. The slithery strings of science fiction movie soundtracks and the man-machine rhythms of Edgard Varese are two influences Adams has incorporated into his musical vision of a "post-nuclear holocaust landscape." Like Oppenheimer himself, the three-hour opera often is just too brilliant for its own good, with a fiendishly brainy libretto by Peter Sellars, who also directed.Īdams' forte is his richly textured orchestral writing, and that is what made the most compelling impression. 11 performance.) The pit was crammed with 71 players, including a fearsome array of percussion, to negotiate Adams' score under conductor Donald Runnicles.īut there's also something maddening about Doctor Atomic, which is guaranteed a long life because of Adams' stature as America's most popular living composer. (Performances continue through Saturday this report is from the Oct. Especially from an orchestral standpoint, it's almost physical in its impact. Looming above the singer was the bomb, a spiky sphere suspended from scaffolding, draped in a shroud.Īs a musical experience _ a sensory experience _ Doctor Atomic is awesome. In a characteristically arty touch, Oppenheimer named the nuclear test site in New Mexico's high desert Trinity, after the Donne poem. ![]()
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