Review: Doctor Atomic

melted_snowball and I went to see the Met production of Doctor Atomic, a John Adams opera set just before the first atom bomb test at Los Alamos.

It was at our local Cineplex, which made for a surreal "brave the hordes of afternoon children's matinees to sit down and see the Metropolitan Operahouse live in front of me in High Definition video." d. saw a Britten opera (Peter Grimes) in the same theatres, earlier this year, but this was new for me.

I consider myself a poor opera watcher- I've never gotten into the form, partly because it's so darn expensive, and watching opera on video has just never turned my crank. This experience was neat. Probably not as neat as seeing it front-row-centre at the Met, but it was a fine afternoon activity (instead of a weekend NYC trip such as bats22's experience last month.)

The opera?

I *loved* the set: we first see the periodic table projected on the curtain; which goes translucent to show a rough mountain landscape made of suspended fabric, and metal junk dangled from the ceiling. The curtain goes up, and two three-story walls come in from either side- each with pictures projected in a 7x3 grid. The grid elements turn out to be window-shade curtains, which are raised to show people working in individual cubbyholes, sitting at tiny desks doing math. And there we have the setting of much of the first act; the scientists at Los Alamos stressing over their as-of-yet unproven (and decidedly scary) atomic bomb.

The music was neat- staccato, rhythmic- d. said it sounded too much like a film score, but I liked it, admittedly not as much as his orchestral work (indeed I don't think I know any Adams by the sound of it other than that linked piece. More to explore!)

I feel poorly qualified to judge the performers; I didn't see any faults, certainly.

The only false note in the opera, I felt, was the very end. The program describes the conclusion as: "the triggering circuits begin to fire. 'Zero minus one.' There is an eerie silence."

They ended the opera with a bright light behind the stage, lighting up the metal junk and the suspended fabric mountains. This didn't feel eerie; it felt like an attempt to evoke a nuclear blast, and it fell short.

There were wonderful eerie moments- in the second act as the scientists are revealed turned every-which-way in their cubbies, many upside-down and looking like they got scattered like toys. Then, minutes later, the top row of scientists are replaced by other figures, which I won't describe in case it's a spoiler.

The best background info I found was an annotated synopsis by The Exploratorium, though it's a few steps to find on the site ("enter site" -> skip intro -> "annotated synopsis"). Lots of depth there- the Muriel Rukeyser piece they used for Oppenheimer's wife Kitty's soliloquy (Easter Eve 1945) is set just months before the events in the opera, with the narrator exhausted of war...

Anyhow. Glad we went. Now I think I see a dog who needs a walk...!