This act is peppered with a repeated refrain from Pasqualita, the Oppenheimers' Tewa Indian housemaid. Other borrowed texts include poetry by Charles Baudelaire and Muriel Rukeyser, the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, and a traditional Tewa Indian song. government documents and communications among the scientists, government officials, and military personnel who were involved in the project. Much of the text from the opera was adapted from declassified U.S. Sellars adapted the libretto from primary historical sources.ĭoctor Atomic is similar in style to previous Adams operas Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, both of which explored the characters and personalities that were involved in historical incidents, rather than a re-enactment of the events themselves. The work centers on key players in the Manhattan Project, especially Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and also features Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert's wife, and her anxiety over her husband's project. Alice Goodman worked for two years with Adams on the project before leaving, objecting to the characterization of Edward Teller, as dictated by the original commission. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," be fashioned as a 20th-century Doctor Faustus, Adams and Sellars deliberately attempted to avoid this characterization. Although the original commission for the opera suggested that U.S. ![]() ![]() The opera ends in the final, prolonged moment before the bomb is detonated. During the second act, time frequently slows down for the characters and then snaps back into reality. The first act takes place about a month before the bomb is to be tested, and the second act is set in the early morning of J(the day of the test).
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