The plot of Doctor Atomic seems rather boring: counting down to a moment that the audience already knows once happened. And yet the makers have managed to make this countdown a nerve-racking exercise. John Adams musical palette is richer than ever. His nervous rhythms are a perfect match for the chain-smoking 'father of the atomic bomb', physicist Robert Oppenheimer. But also in the 'love duet' of
… the Oppenheimer couple, Adams' music easily transcends the stereotypical label 'minimal music'. For example, Peter Sellars' libretto is much more than the erudite 'show off' of an intellectual theater maker. It is precisely this erudition - referring to Baudelaire, Donne, the Bhagavat Gita and the poetry of the Tewa Indians - makes it painfully feel what 'The Gadget' could wipe out hope and civilization in one flash. Or as Doe Maar once sang: "Safe in the health insurance fund before the bomb falls." (HJ)more
