Overview
Synopsis
Doctor Atomic is set on the final days before the first test of the atomic bomb; July 15 and 16, 1945. With the final few adjustments taking place the ‘Gadget’ is ready to test. The only thing holding them back are the intense electrical storms over the test site, which threaten to put the test on hold for days.
The emotional toll that a project like this has on the people involved is incomprehensible. Adams’s opera focuses on the experiences of individuals in the final hours and moments before this event, and gives Robert Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty, Edward Teller and Robert Wilson, General Groves and Captain Nolan, a chance to air their concerns. Can they be held responsible for the destruction that this weapon will cause, when at any point they could have refused to build it? Will a device this powerful simply set the atmosphere alight, and destroy the earth? Or, will it simply be a dud?
A break in the weather, and the test will go ahead with only minimal delays. The countdown begins, and all they can do now is wait.
Show Information
- Music
- John Adams
- Libretto
- Peter Sellars
- Category
- Opera
- Age Guidance
- Thirteen Plus (PG-13)
- Number of Acts
- 2
- First Produced
- 2005
- Genres
- Historical/Biographical
- Settings
- Period, Multiple Settings
- Time & Place
- July, 1945, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Trinity testing site at Alamogordo
- Cast Size
- medium
- Orchestra Size
- Large
- Dancing
- None
- Licensor
- Boosey & Hawkes
- Ideal For
- Professional Opera, Star Vehicle Male, Mostly Male Cast, Includes Mature Adult, Adult, Young Adult Characters, Medium Cast
Context
One of the events that shaped the 20th century was Project ‘Trinity’; the research and development of the world’s first nuclear bomb. Robert Oppenheimer led The Manhattan Project, under instruction from the U.S. Government to develop a plutonium based bomb, capable of destroying entire cities. The destructive force of such a weapon was, until this point, untested. The best physicists in the world could only calculate and estimate, but they had no way of really knowing how the plutonium core
to read the context for Doctor Atomic and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
Act One
Overture
The chorus establishes the context of this opera by presenting the scientific argument on which the Manhattan Project, and the development of a nuclear bomb was based. Where originally the understanding had been that energy could neither be created nor destroyed, it is now understood that energy can become matter, and matter energy.
Scene 1
It is ‘The end of June, 1945’. Any day now, the people are expecting to hear the explosion of the first atomic bomb, with no
to read the plot for Doctor Atomic and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
| Name | Part Size | Gender | Vocal Part |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lead |
Male |
Baritone |
|
|
Lead |
Male |
Baritone |
|
|
Supporting |
Female |
Mezzo-Soprano |
|
|
Supporting |
Male |
Bass |
|
|
Supporting |
Male |
Baritone |
|
|
Supporting |
Male |
Tenor |
|
|
Supporting |
Male |
Tenor |
|
|
Supporting |
Female |
Mezzo-Soprano, Contralto |
|
|
Ensemble |
Either Gender |
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Baritone, Bass, Contralto |
Songs
Act One
Overture
- ‘We believed that “energy can be neither created nor destroyed”’ - Chorus
Scene 1
- ‘The end of June 1945’ - Chorus
- ‘First of all let me say’ - Teller, Oppenheimer
- ‘We surround the plutonium core’ - Women’s chorus
- ‘We are bedeviled by faulty detonators’ - Oppenheimer, Teller, Wilson
- ‘The test must go on as scheduled’ - Oppenheimer, Teller, Chorus
- ‘Our only hope is to convince ev'rybody’ - Teller, Wilson, Oppenheimer
Scene 2
- ‘Am I in your light?’ - Kitty
- ‘Long let me inhale’ - Oppenheimer
- ‘Ah, the motive of it all was loneliness’ - Kitty, Oppenheimer
Scene 3
- Electrical Storm
- ‘What the hell is wrong with the weather?’ - Groves, Oppenheimer, Hubbard
- ‘Five hundred U.S. Superfortresses are raining bombs’ - Groves, Hubbard, Oppenheimer
- ‘I’ll sign the report, sir’ - Hubbard, Groves
- ‘With respect, sir, anyone with two good eyes’ - Nolan, Groves, Oppenheimer
- ‘I have been preoccupied with many matters’ - Groves, Nolan, Oppenheimer
- ‘Get them out of here’ - Groves, Oppenheimer
- ‘General, you are bearing up with remarkable fortitude’ - Oppenheimer, Groves
- ‘Batter my heart’ - Oppenheimer
Act Two
Scene 1
- ‘Easter Eve, 1945’ - Kitty
- Interlude: Rain over the Sangre de Cristos
- ‘In the north the cloud-flower blossoms’ - Pasqualita
Scene 2
- ‘It’s midnight, Jack’ - Wilson, Hubbard
- ‘I’ve dreamed the same dream’ - Wilson, Pasqualita
- ‘To the farthest west, the sea’ - Kitty, Pasqualita
- ‘A delay in the Potsdam Ultimatum’ - Groves, Pasqualita,
- ‘Fermi is taking wagers’ - Teller, Groves, Oppenheimer
- ‘I’ve spent a great deal of time indulging’ - Teller, Oppenheimer
- ‘Edward, the test will be delayed an hour’ - Teller, Oppenheimer, Hubbard, Pasqualita
Scene 3, Countdown Part 1
- ‘Panic’ - Chorus
- ‘This program has been plagued from the start’ - Groves, Offstage Voice, Chorus, Oppenheimer
- ‘To keep the weakness secret’ - Oppenheimer, Kitty, Pasqualita, Wilson, Chorus
- ‘The winter dawned, but the dead did not come back’ - Pasqualita, Kitty, Oppenheimer,
- ‘The only saviors are the ham sandwiches’ - Teller
- ‘At the Sight of This’ - Chorus
Scene 4, Countdown Part II
- ‘Lieutenant Bush, keep a weather eye on Oppenheimer’ - Groves, Teller, Chorus
- ‘To what benevolent demon’ - Oppenheimer, Chorus
- ‘That’s their signal!’ - Oppenheimer
- ‘The sky is clear to the east’ - Hubbard, Pasqualita
- ‘In the midnight, in the flame-brilliant midnight’ - Kitty
- ‘Zero minus two minutes’ - Oppenheimer, Teller
- ‘Countdown’ - Chorus
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
Key Terms
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Videos
Quizzes
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Guide Written By:
Wendy Silvester
Singer and vocal coach based in the UK.