Atomic Energy
By daithi ~ October 22nd, 2008. Filed under: Music, Norwich.
During RTÉ’s celebration of John Adams in 2007, a major omission was the art of the voice. Adams of course has authored a number of (for the genre) well-known operatic works, including the epic Nixon in China, the controversial Death of Klingoffer and the overlooked (in my view) ’songplay’ I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky.
Adams’ latest opera, Doctor Atomic, is at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this season. It will be shown across the UK as part of the Met Opera HD series in small cinemas (those affiliated with the Picturehouses group, typically arthouse or membership places - here in Norwich, it is Cinema City) on Saturday 8th November at 6pm. It’s the latest step in the very long-running Metropolitan Opera international broadcasts, first heard in 1931, which has gone from AM to FM to TV and now to various methods of digital distribution.
In advance of all this, check out this interview with Adams in the Observer (with responses and raised eyebrows from On An Overgrowth Path, who also highlights this; see also Jessica Duchen). Adams has a book out too, called Hallelujah Junction. Critic Alex Ross (author of what is probably the best book on 20th century music yet written, The Rest Is Noise) discusses the Met’s production in the New Yorker, here, and adds some nice sound samples, here. (With thanks to Ross’s blog). And finally, the Met has a neat minisite with piles of stuff to read, watch and hear.
