On this first recording of John Adams's 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, the composer leads the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with a cast led by Gerald Finley, who originated the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars created the libretto, drawing from original sources to explore the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion at the Alamagordo test site in New Mexico in July 1945. "A magnificent accomplishment that easily takes it's place alongside the other Adams-Sellars triumphs," exclaims the Los Angeles Times. "It contains music of unearthly splendor."
2 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "The End of June 1945"
3 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "First of All, Let Me Say
4 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "We Surround the Plutonium Core
5 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "We Are Bedeviled By Faulty Detonators
6 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "Many of Us Are Inclined to Say
7 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "The Nation's Fate
8 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "This Is a Petition
9 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "What If It's a Dud?
10 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "The Test Must Go on As Scheduled
11 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1: "No, Before the Bomb Is Used
12 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2: "Am I in Your Light?
13 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2: "Long Let Me Inhale, Deeply
14 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2: "The Motive of It All Was Loneliness
15 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: Electrical Storm
16 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "Five Hundred U.S. Superfortresses Are Raining Bombs
17 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "I'll Sign the Report, Sir
18 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "With Respect, Sir, Anyone with Two Good Eyes
19 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "I Have Been Preoccupied with Many Matters
20 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "Get Them Out of Here. from Now on, I'm Making My Own Weather Predictions
21 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "General, You Are Bearing Up with Remarkable Fortitude
22 Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: "Batter My Heart
23 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1: "Easter Eve, 1945"
24 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1: Interlude - Rain Over the Sangre de Cristo
25 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1: "In the North the Cloud-Flower Blossoms
26 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "It's Midnight, Jack
27 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "I've Dreamed the Same Dream
28 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "To the Farthest West, the Sea and the Striped Country
29 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "A Delay in the Potsdam Ultimatum
30 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "Fermi Is Taking Wagers
31 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "I've Spent a Great Deal of Time Indulging in Controlled Fantasies
32 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2: "Edward, the Test Will Be Delayed An Hour
33 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: Panic
34 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "This Program Has Been Plagued from the Start
35 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "To Keep the Weakness Secret
36 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "I Just Finished Reading the Magic Mountain
37 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "The Winter Dawned, But the Dead Did Not Come Back
38 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "And Love, Which Contains All Human Spirit
39 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: "The Only Saviors Are the Ham Sandwiches
40 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: Chorus - at the Sight of This
41 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "Lieutenant Bush, Keep a Weather Eye on Oppenheimer
42 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "To What Benevolent Demon Do I Owe the Joy of Being Thus Surrounded
43 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "That's Their Signal!
44 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "The Sky Is Clear to the East
45 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "In the Midnight, in the Flame-Brilliant Midnight
46 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: "Zero Minus Two Minutes
47 Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: Countdown
On this first recording of John Adams's 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, the composer leads the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with a cast led by Gerald Finley, who originated the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars created the libretto, drawing from original sources to explore the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion at the Alamagordo test site in New Mexico in July 1945. "A magnificent accomplishment that easily takes it's place alongside the other Adams-Sellars triumphs," exclaims the Los Angeles Times. "It contains music of unearthly splendor."
