John Adams Doctor Atomic

Product Description The longing to overcome human boundaries led the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to begin an experiment that formed a threat to the whole of humanity, and whose scientific results still do today. The question of the moral implications of the atomic bomb is raised in John Adams’ opera, just as much as that of the influence on the private lives of the main characters. Doctor Atomic is the fifth work to result from almost twenty years of collaboration between the American composer and his fellow American director and Erasmus Prize-winner Peter Sellars. Press Reviews "The cast is flawless...Adams has created a beautiful provocative work that refreshes the repertoire." (The Times) "Peter Sellars's film of the opera is expressionistic, claustrophobic, sometimes deliberately out of focus. The sound quality is exceptionally good, as is the singing and playing under conductor Lawrence Renes." (BBC Music Magazine) "Gerald Finley carries the problems of the world on his shoulders as Oppenheimer and the Netherlands Philharmonic and Lawrence Renes play like it's the best score since Fidelio. " (Gramophone) Cast Gerald Finley (J. Robert Oppenheimer) Jessica Rivera (Kitty Oppenheimer) Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves) Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller) James Maddalena (Jack Hubbard) Thomas Glenn (Robert Wilson) Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; Lawrence Renes ProductionCompany: De Nederlandse OperaStage Director: Peter Sellars Disc InformationCatalogue Number: OA0998DDate of Performance: 2007Running Time: 230 minutesSound: DTS Surround 5.1; 2.0 Dolby DigitalAspect Ratio: 16:9 AnamorphicSubtitles: EN, FR, DE, ES, NELabel: Opus Arte Review In documentaries on the "Doctor Atomic" DVDs, the vignettes of Sellars talking about his mission offer a characteristic sense of art at its most stubbornly idealistic...Adams himself says on the DVD that "Doctor Atomic" draws on the vocabulary of the overwrought scores to 1950s sci-fi B movies, except with all the camp stripped away so you are left with pure anxiety conveyed by certain sound effects and timbres at key moments. But there are also moments of rich beauty. In the second scene, when the setting shifts from the lab to Robert and Kitty Oppenheimer's bedroom, the score is so purely gorgeous it could make you cry. -- Washington Post, Anne Midgette, October 19, 2008 Included in 2008: The Year in Review The Ten Best Classical Music Recordings of 2008 by Alex Ross -- The New Yorker, Alex Ros