The work examines the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atom bomb, and the new website provides details of the historic characters, the political context surrounding the atom bomb project, plus an ongoing diary of the creation of the new opera.
Doctor Atomic is due to be premiered at the San Francisco Opera on 1 October 2005, with Peter Sellars as director and Donald Runnicles as conductor. Further performances in 2007 by its co-producers, the Netherlands Opera and the Lyric Opera Chicago.
An aural taster of the opera was heard in New York on 21 May, with the first performance of the scena Easter Eve 1945, performed by Audra McDonald and the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer. The 12-minute mezzo-soprano aria, sung in act one of the opera by Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, sets poetry by Muriel Rukeyser (1913-80).
"Rukeyser’s poem is a complex and non-narrative meditation, and the aria is less a dramatic scena than a dense wedding of text and music… a partnership between word and note, laid out on a truly grand scale and furthered by the luminosity of the vocalist Audra McDonald." New York Times
The European premiere of Easter Eve 1945 takes place at the BBC Proms in London on 22 August with McDonald and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adams.
www.doctor-atomic.com