Blog Post #5 - Scott Crissman - John Adams / Doctor Atomic / John Donne

As most people in this class are probably aware at this point, I'm a big fan of utilizing audio and/or visual examples in my work. American contemporary composer John Adams in his 2005 opera Doctor Atomic, which tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb and its father, J. Robert Oppenheimer, shows an incredible sensitivity to the "word" (as van der Leeuw refers to it) and the application of the holy in a seemingly profane event in world history. I can think of few examples of the sublime in an overarching historical event than the creation and use of the atomic bomb. Its was borne of a desire to end the War and save lives, and the inner workings of the bomb itself and the organizations created for this purpose are a thing of beauty. The actual employment of the bomb is also one of the most terrifying and captivating events - such destruction and power contained in so small a thing. Throughout the opera, Adams and Peter Sellars (the librettist) utilize poetic texts that Oppenheimer is known to have revered, including excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita and poetry by Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Baudelaire, and John Donne, among others.
The closing of Act I is the aria "Batter My Heart," sung by Oppenheimer alone in the presence of the half-completed bomb, expressing his obsession with and fear of his brainchild. The text is one of John Donne's holy sonnets:

BATTER my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely'I love you,'and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish me,

The staging as well as the ingenius marriage of story, borrowed text, and music make this an incredibly captivating and heartfelt moment in all of opera, expressing the sublime as it affected Oppenheimer's professional and private lives during this turbulent time in history.