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J. Robert Oppenheimer Explodes on the Met Stage By Irene Backalenick |
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Theatre critic Irene Backalenick covers theatre for national and regional publications. She has a Ph.D.in theatre criticism from City University Graduate Center. Her book "East Side Story--Ten Years with the Jewish Repertory Theatre" (based on her doctoral thesis) won a first-place national book award in history. Other awards in journalism and theatre criticism include a New York Times Publishers Award (received while writing for The New York Times). Her professional organizations include the American Theatre Critics Association, Association for Jewish Theatre, Outer Critics Circle (on the executive board), Drama Desk, Actors Equity Derwent Committee, and the Connecticut Critics Circle e-mail: ireneback@sbcglobal.net Web : www.nytheaterscene.com What better choice of an anti-hero for the stage? What better topic, with its epic proportions, for an opera? And now indeed composer John Adams makes Oppenheimer the key figure in his new, striking opera, “Dr. Atomic.” The spotlight focuses on Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico, at a crucial moment in his career---the period just prior to the explosion of the first atom bomb. (Adams is given to focusing on critical moments in modern history. Consider his track record, which includes “Nixon in China” and “The Death of Klinghoffer.”) The score for “Dr. Atomic” is appropriately mystical, ominous, reflecting both Oppenheimer and his project. It is music which leaves one decidedly uncomfortable, particularly those of us more partial to such melodic traditional operas as “La Boheme” or “Tosca.” The opera had its debut at the San Francisco Opera in 2005 (with Adams’ score and libretto by Peter Sellars). Now its New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera is an equally striking production under direction of Penny Woolcock, a British filmmaker. Julian Crouch’s set is brilliant, giving the story the epic proportions it is meant to have. Scenes with Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, and her concerns over the project, add a human and contrasting element. In one scene Kitty waits it out with her maid Pasqualita, and later the maid sings a lullaby to the Oppenheimers' child. Gerald Finley, as Oppenheimer, is in fine voice, and Sasha Cooke gives a moving portrayal of Kitty. It is a chilling theme. One can never consider the atom bomb, and its emergence, without considering subsequent consequences—the demolition of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender. And the dangers of a nuclear age. Should the bomb have been used to annihilate, not only enemy targets, but human beings? Should a new era which might well destroy all of civilization have been set in motion? Hence Oppenheimer would become a controversial figure—both for his role in nuclear development and, on a lesser note, for his left-wing views. Initially lauded for his leadership role, ultimately he would be reviled, in the intensely anti-communist McCarthy era, as a communist sympathizer, with severe consequences for his career. And always there would be the part he played in launching the atom bomb. But Oppenheimer’s life and outlook would be loaded with contradictions. An acknowledged genius in the world of science, at the same time he had a philosophic bent with an interest in Eastern religions and languages. He was well aware of what he had set in motion. On seeing the first test explosion, he found himself quoting a passage from the Hindu sacred test, the Bhagavad Gita, “I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Yet he had come out of a middle-class Jewish background (the son of Julius Oppenheimer, a wealthy textile importer, and Ella Friedman Oppenheimer, a Baltimore artist, and grew up comfortably in New York. But genius makes its own way, and Oppenheimer graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and moved on to get his doctorate in Gottingen, Germany, in 1927. He would return to the States to teach at Cal Tech and University of California at Berkeley and make significant contributions in theoretical physics. But the contradictions would remain for this student of Sanskrit and eastern philosophies. So, too, are the contrasts posed in “Dr. Atomic” in its music, staging, libretto—dark against light, horror against hope, yin versus yang. In all, “Dr. Atomic” will not be to the taste of every opera-lover. But it does take on one of the central issues of our time—bringing a time-honored art form into the 21st century. ----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Related Links:
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