This is more reminiscent of Peter Sellers in Being There rather than Peter Sellars.There is, however, more black humour in this act as the people attending the nuclear test protect themselves by applying sun-tan lotion and donning sunglasses. Pasqualita sings a vague Tewa melody "In the north the cloud-flower blossoms". Kitty, in real life quite a complex figure, just mopes around. In the second act the two female roles, Kitty Oppenheimer and her Tewa maid Pasqualita do not seem to have much point. There is much black humour, such as the way Oppenheimer describes the power of the bomb as being "dangerous to life for a radius of at least two-thirds of a mile". Our hero, Robert Oppenheimer, sung by Gerald Finley, argues against this on the grounds that the bomb might be a dud. I found the first act exposition very interesting as various scientists argue that a) the Japanese should be given two days warning before the bomb is dropped and b) that Japanese representatives should be invited to watch the test, whereupon they would promptly surrender. In Penny Woolcock's imaginative new production, Act I opens with a periodic table of the elements which becomes a series of boxes containing members of the chorus. The second is the waiting around in the New Mexico desert for the first bomb to explode. The first act is an exposition of the pros and cons of dropping the first atom bomb. This work by John Adams with libretto by Peter Sellars is described as an opera but appears to me to be more of an oratorio in nature. Other, purely orchestral highlights include a splendid Act II intermezzo and a brilliant, tension-filled finale before the atom bomb explodes. This latter is actually a setting of a poem by John Donne. Kitty Openheimer has a wistful first Act aria "Am I in your light?" and Robert Oppenheimer has a powerful aria that ends the first act "Batter my heart, three person'd God". There are two standout arias from Sasha Cooke as Kitty Oppenheimer and Gerald Finley as Robert Oppenheimer. After two hearings I felt that it was probably the first operatic masterpiece of the 21st century.
I listened to this opera twice through since, after one hearing, I felt that I had not done it justice.
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