John Adams: Doctor Atomic

CD1

1. Doctor Atomic: Overture
2. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"The end of June 1945"
3. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"First of all, let me say
4. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:  "We surround the plutonium core
5. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:  "We are bedeviled by faulty detonators
6. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"Many of us are inclined to say
7. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:  "The nation's fate.
8. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"This is a petition
9. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"What if it's a dud?
10. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"The test must go on as scheduled
11. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 1:"No, before the bomb is used
12. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2:"Am I in your light?
13. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2:"Long let me inhale, deeply.
14. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 2:"The motive of it all was loneliness
15. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3: Electrical storm
16. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"What the hell is wrong with the weather?
17. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"Five hundred U.S. Superfortresses are raining bombs
18. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"I'll sign the report, sir
19. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"With respect, sir, anyone with two good eyes
20. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"I have been preoccupied with many matters
21. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:  "Get them out of here. From now on, I'm making my own weather predictions
22. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"General, you are bearing up with remarkable fortitude
23. Doctor Atomic, Act I, Scene 3:"Batter my heart

CD2

1. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1:"Easter Eve, 1945"
2. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1: Interlude - Rain over the Sangre de Cristo
3. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 1:"In the north the cloud-flower blossoms
4. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:  "It's midnight, Jack
5. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"I've dreamed the same dream
6. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"To the farthest west, the sea and the striped country
7. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"A delay in the Potsdam Ultimatum
8. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"Fermi is taking wagers
9. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"I've spent a great deal of time indulging in controlled fantasies
10. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 2:"Edward, the test will be delayed an hour
11. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: Panic
12. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"This program has been plagued from the start
13. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"To keep the weakness secret
14. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"I just finished reading The Magic Mountain
15. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"The winter dawned, but the dead did not come back
16. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"And love, which contains all human spirit
17. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3:"The only saviors are the ham sandwiches
18. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 3: Chorus -At the sight of this
19. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"Lieutenant Bush, keep a weather eye on Oppenheimer
20. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"To what benevolent demon do I owe the joy of being thus surrounded
21. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"That's their signal!
22. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"The sky is clear to the east
23. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"In the midnight, in the flame-brilliant midnight
24. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4:"Zero minus two minutes
25. Doctor Atomic, Act II, Scene 4: Countdown

"A magnificent accomplishment that easily takes its place alongside the other Adams-Sellars triumphs," exclaimed the Los Angeles Times. "It contains music of unearthly splendor … gorgeous lushness and … rich expressivity."

Doctor Atomic concerns the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion at the Alamagordo test site in New Mexico in July 1945. The focal characters are the physicist and Manhattan Project director, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer; his wife Kitty; Edward Teller; and General Leslie Groves, US Army commander of the project.

Sellars's libretto draws on original source material, including personal memoirs, recorded interviews, technical manuals of nuclear physics, declassified government documents, and the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser, an American poet and contemporary of Oppenheimer.

John Adams's works, spanning more than four decades, have entered the repertoire and are among the most performed of all contemporary classical music, among them Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, Chamber Symphony, Doctor Atomic Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and his Violin Concerto. His stage works, all in collaboration with director Peter Sellars, include Nixon in China (1987), The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), El Niño (2000), Doctor Atomic (2005), A Flowering Tree (2006), and the Passion oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary (2012). In November 2017, Adams's new opera Girls of the Golden West, set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, received its world premiere at San Francisco Opera. The opera's libretto, assembled by Sellars, includes original Gold Rush song lyrics, letters, journal entries, and personal memoirs from the era. Doctor Atomic is Nonesuch's thirty-first recording of the works of John Adams, beginning with Harmonielehre in 1986; the label has released forty-seven first recordings of Adams pieces.