![]() This represented a significant departure from the often-mythic subject matter of traditional operas, the start of a trend in recent opera toward subjects of contemporary political relevance. His two previous operas, Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), foreshadowed Doctor Atomic in that they both depicted recent historical events-respectively, President Nixon’s 1972 visit to China and the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985. Even before Doctor Atomic, Adams had established himself as a prominent composer of contemporary American opera and classical music. The works of John Adams exemplify this trend. This wave of American innovation in the opera has continued up through today. ![]() After World War II, however, productions of new and inventive operas by American composers became more frequent, and these works grew in popularity among operagoers. Opera grew popular among American elites in the nineteenth century, but the most frequently-performed works in the United States were those of the European master composers. In Europe, opera has continued to develop ever since with premieres of new works and revival productions of old ones, known in opera parlance as “repertory works.” By the turn of the eighteenth century, opera had begun to spread to such countries as France, Germany, England, and Austria. Opera grew more sensational in its plots, more extravagant in its sets and costumes, and more commercial as an enterprise. Throughout the 1600s, the opera spread to other Italian cities, including Rome, Naples, and Venice. As such, opera has historically been an art form for the elite.ĭrawing on existing musical and theatrical traditions in Western society, opera first began to emerge in late sixteenth-century Florence. In short, producing an opera is a massive, and very expensive, undertaking. Additionally, an opera needs a producer (or director) to coordinate the creative work, as well as administrative staff to take care of marketing, ticket sales, and other crucial functions. A performance of an opera requires an orchestra, principal singers, usually dancers and a chorus, and designers of the set, props, costumes, and lighting. ![]() An operatic work begins with the composer, who writes the music, and the librettist, who writes the words. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines opera as “a staged drama set to music in its entirety, made up of vocal pieces with instrumental accompaniment and usually with orchestral overtures and interludes.” Opera is a complex and collaborative art form. Wilson, and Kitty Oppenheimer, are also represented. Other historical figures involved in the Manhattan Project, including General Leslie Groves, Edward Teller, Robert R. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, is the central character of the opera. The opera, which premiered in 2005, takes place in the weeks leading up to the Trinity Test, the first-ever detonation of a nuclear weapon. Doctor Atomic is an opera composed by John Adams with a libretto by Peter Sellars.
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