John Adams “Doctor Atomic”, BBC Symphony Orchestra

John Adams Doctor Atomic

BBC Symphony Orchestra | John Adams conductor | Gerald Finley  Dr J. Robert Oppenheimer | Julia Bullock  Kitty Oppenheimer | Brindley Sherratt  Edward Teller | Andrew Staples  Robert Wilson | BBC Singers | Penny Woolcock  Director

John Adams conducts his 2005 opera, telling the story of Dr J Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the first atomic bomb, as part of the Barbican’s focus on some of the major American musical figures of our time.

The libretto, created by Peter Sellars, draws on original source material, including personal memoirs, recorded interviews, technical manuals of nuclear physics, declassified government documents and poetry by Muriel Rukeyser.

Gerald Finley, who has sung Oppenheimer in productions in New York, Amsterdam, Chicago and London, reprises a role he has made his own and Penny Woolcock who directed the Metropolitan Opera’s production (also seen at ENO) directs.

Concert-staging. In English with surtitles.