FundamentallySound Blog

There are some advantages to tardiness: last night Lee and I rushed into the War Memorial Opera Hall about ten minutes past the beginning of Doctor Atomic. We had tickets waiting for us, and rather than force us to stand at the back of the hall for the hour and forty five minutes of the first act, the usher gave us a box. You know, it truly is a different world up there.

About the opera, I first have to say that I find Adams' music to be way too conservative for my taste. His forays into electronics, which he used a bit last night, sound as though he is still influenced by people like Varése. Has he not heard anything that has happened within the last fifty years? Putting that aside, there was a level of complexity, nuance, and virtuosity to the whole evening that was very refreshing. It was successful in making a kind of high drama out of people discussing endothermic/exothermic reactions, and so on. Now we know that scientists are just people too.

The whole time I was watching it I was so aware of how American the production was, especially the music. Adams' music is completely resistant to self-indulgence, which seems to be very American, the resistance I mean. He never goes off into an area that is too weird, he keeps everything within the realm of easy consumption, avoiding anything that might confound the audience. Maybe he is afraid of seeming arrogant. He obviously has the talent and the technical skill to pull it off, but he seems to hold himself in check, never veering too far off the beaten path.

I was confounded, irritated, and slightly upset by the ending. The piece trails off, right after the bomb has been tested in the New Mexico desert, with a voice in Japanese saying, "water, please." Come on, the incident that is being referred to should be the one that is receiving a multi-million dollar opera production. It is an event of all-too-real drama at which a mainstream American composer can only make a rather timid gesture. I think that is the act that needs to be reconciled in the American consciousness, not the sleepless nights of poor Oppenheimer and his crew of scientists who suffered cognitive dissonance from their work. That is the event that has never made a dent in the cultural fabric of this country which seems unable to take responsibility for its negative actions. I appreciate that Adams has at least taken such a nuanced and questioning view of the events leading up to the creation of the bomb, but I can't help but think that it's only the tip of the iceberg.