bam.org

     People were starting to get restless. It was the opening night of Les ecailles de la memoire (The scales of memory) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the show was already ten minutes late in getting started. However, once the theater went dark and the music started to play, all that frustration melted away and all that was left was awe. Les ecailles de la memoire is a show filled with breathtaking music, astonishing dance, and a sincere story about the culture of a people.

     The most striking element of the performance was the dancing. In a world filled with hip-hop or even ballroom for the more classical person, African dance is not something that is often encountered in our everyday lives. The exotic nature of the dances in the performance captivated the audience. Although it was a different style of dance, its purpose was the same – to dramatize emotion. However, beyond the wonderful peculiarities of this style of dance, the Urban Bush Women and the Compaigne Jant-Bi from Senegal were clearly skilled dancers. They moved in ways that most people could not even imagine.

     The wonderful dancing abilities of the two groups were supplemented by the music. The music was exotic and it had the ability to convey emotion through sound in order to supplement the visual experience of dance. The two complemented each other in every possible manner. When the scene was a joyous one, such as the party scene, the music was upbeat and quick, but when the scene was dark and dramatic, the music was slow and heavy. When the music pulsated like a beating heart, the dancers pulsated along with it.

     Behind the artistry of the performance, there is a spectacular underlying story. The dancers rarely speak and when they do it is often in a foreign language. In addition, the performance seems to jump from scene to scene with little concern for continuity. As a result of these things, it is difficult to understand what the piece is exactly about it. However, the trick is not to watch this performance like a movie or a Broadway show, but to immerse yourself in the emotion that the music and dance is trying to convey. Only through these emotions will you be able to understand what is going on.

     In the beginning, the story seems to be about identity as the dancers come out unto the stage and introduce themselves in terms of their ancestors. The constant jumping from scene to scene may trick you into thinking that this performance is about the different African cultures present in the world. However, you soon learn that this is the tale of the common culture of the African people.

     Although it is a story of a common culture, it is interesting to note how often the two dance groups, the Urban Bush Women and the Compaigne Jant-Bi from Senegal, perform separately. The purpose of this may be to give the dancers resting time between dances, but it also has the effect of emphasizing the differences in the dancing styles of these two groups. During the performance, it is extremely apparent that these are separate dance groups because they move differently. However, the two groups do a great job at combining their two styles during the dances in which both participate. It is in these particular dances that the magic of the African culture is revealed.

metmuseum.org

     The Renaissance in Italy was an era filled with the sweet sensations of love. It was the era of poets, musicians and bards – all of whom created art in order to express the wonders and tragedies of love. In addition to all of these well-known mediums of affection, there was a massive collection of paintings, pottery, sculpture, jewelry, and tapestry created to depict the theme of love as well. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that runs until February 16, 2009, explores the ways in which artists utilized these mediums to portray the different aspects of love – from courtship and marriage to adultery.

            Just contemplating the multiple of facets of love seems complicated, but the curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art show their brilliance in the wonderful coordination of this exhibition. The complex topic of love is broken down by the curators into four simpler themes – marriage, betrothal, children, and erotic love. Besides signs, this division of themes is emphasized by the wall colors. Marriage is red, betrothal is blue, childbirth is green, and erotic love is crimson. In addition, to separate areas for each theme, there are various quotes relating to the four aspects of love in the different areas.

In order to further simplify the topic of love, the curators made the successful decision to have only a few pieces in each room. The extra space allows visitors to take the time to explore each individual work. This is especially important in an exhibition that includes over 150 works of art that range from painting to pottery. The piece chosen by the museum to represent the exhibition is the Plate with Fede Motif. An image of the plate adorns the introductory area, which provides information on what the exhibition is about. The piece is a highly decorative plate with the depiction of clasped hands in the middle. The clasped hands were a symbol for fede, or the Italian term for faith. These hands are located inside a series of concentric circles of various designs. The circle symbolized perfection and prosperity in the Renaissance era. The colors used in the piece are gold and blue – two of the most expensive pigments to make during that time period.

With such a wide array of pieces present in the exhibition, a visitor might get lost in the beauty of these objects. However, the curators do an excellent job of providing factual information about each piece. Each different area has a detailed overview of the pieces located in each part and in addition, each piece has detailed background information written on its title card. This is especially useful for the childbirth trays located in the section about children. One of the most striking of these trays was the Childbirth Bowl with the Naming of John the Baptist and Della Casa and Tornaquinci Arms. It depicts the scene of Saint John the Baptist being named. The colorful clothing of the figures in the piece stand out due to the black background. In addition, the piece is framed in a gold circle, the symbol of perfection. Although many of the visitors at the exhibition were struck by the beauty of the piece, they were not sure what the tray was used for. The most common theory among the crowd was that the baby was placed on this tray after it had been born, but that would probably ruin the tray. These confused visitors found their answers on the wall text that stated that these trays were used just like a normal tray – to hold food. Fruit was placed on it or a bowl of soup for the new mother.

Having been created in a time and place in which women did not possess a lot of power, it is surprising how many of the works in the exhibition are focused on women. The betrothal area is focused on showing how beautiful women are, while the childbirth section portrays how powerful they are. Then, the erotic love section depicts how sexually powerful women are. The Renaissance may have been a time of great male geniuses such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, but a large portion of the artwork created was for women. It may have been an unintentional theme present in the exhibition, but it was a very powerful message.

samuelfreedman.com

      We had all read his book, Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life, and now we sat anxiously awaiting the man who dared delve into his mother’s life. Most of us are content with knowing only the information about our parents that we learned after we were born. We look at them as only “our parents” and find it hard to believe that they had a life before us, but even if we do take the time to realize this distinction, it may be that we do not really want to know what our parents were like before they had us. Just imagine your mother as an unruly teenager. However, Samuel Freedman dared to delve into this forbidden territory and the result was a success – both in the form of the popularity of the book as well as personal success.

            The first thing that you can tell about Samuel Freedman when he walks into a room is that he is an intellectual person. This presence is apparent in the care that he takes in the way that he dresses and carries himself. The intellectual in him becomes even more apparent once he begins to speak. He speaks clearly and eloquently, but beyond that, he talks of complex ideas in a simple and lyrical manner that anyone could understand. One idea that he presented in his speech was the “periodic table of human nature,” which is the idea that no matter what occurs in human existence, all things break down into basic emotional elements. He then went on to say that “if a work sticks to these basic elements, people will relate.”

            His book is a testament to this idea. Although it specifically focuses on his mother, Eleanor, it is a story that is relatable to almost anyone. This came about partially from the method that he utilized to create the narrative. “I thought it was important to not invent,” he said. Freedman chose to research his mother’s life with the standard of historical accuracy used for prominent historical figures. Utilizing primary documents such as Social Security records and photographs, Freedman was able to portray his mother with the importance of a historical figure. As he said, “Ordinary lives are filled with extraordinary drama.” As a result, he is able to form a universal character from his mother.

            Freedman stated both in his book and in his presentation that the book was an act of penance – a way to answer “all the questions I hadn’t asked when she was around.” However, in considering the manner in which he wrote her story and talks about her, it becomes clear that this was a quest not necessarily to understand his mother, but instead to simply learn who she was. Although Freedman states that he paid fanatical attention to the details of her life because she was a true individual and he tired to stay “as true as possible to the particularities of … her life and times,” it appears that this attention to detail was the result of trying to learn more about her.

            When his mother died, Samuel Freedman realized how little he knew about her and her life. As a result he went on an extensive quest to find out who Eleanor was when she was an unruly teenager. He looked to see what events in her life shaped who she had become when he had known her. In the process, he found a dramatic story in an unlikely place. This story not only brought him success in terms of his book, but it finally allowed him to mourn the death of a woman that he had not really known before – his mother.

            Everything was destroyed – her home, her family. Two of her sisters were lucky. They were on vacation in France when the communists came to Poltava. They stayed in France and she never saw them again, but she was glad they were safe. She was forced to run. She and her husband ran to the countryside and disguised themselves as a couple of poor farmers. It was their only hope. She left everything in Poltava except for a few essentials and a handful of photographs. These photographs were her only connection to her family. The rest had to be burned in order to keep their identities as hidden as possible.

            Now, only a few years after her family managed to escape from the Communists, her husband went missing. A group of men had picked him up in the middle of the night three days ago. She had no idea where he was taken. When the men came, no one said anything. Anna knew that these “night visits” had become more frequent now that Stalin was becoming more powerful, but they had managed to remain hidden all this time – why now?

            Maybe it was the fact that her husband had become part of the town council, but too much time separated the occasion on which he gained this coveted position and the night he disappeared. It didn’t make sense. She had asked everyone that she knew if they had seen him, but no one seemed to know anything. Finally, she could do nothing, but go to the very people she feared.

            On that cold winter morning, she decided to go to the police. As she made her way to the local town, her mind was filled with anxious thoughts. Where could he be? What would she do if he was not found? How would she take care of their three children? As her mind began to spin into a whirlpool of what if’s, Anna began to ponder her past – How did things change so much in so little time?

            She was born to a wealthy noble family in Poltava. Even though she was one of three children, she was doted on as much as any only child. Her father was a holy man and he took especially good care of his family. One year, she recollected, he gave her a beautiful dress. It was adorned with various precious stones – pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires. There were so many jewels on it that you could not tell the color of the fabric underneath. It was her favorite dress and now it was carelessly thrown somewhere in a Communist loot pile.

            Her life should have been simple. She had grown up in prosperity and her beauty allowed her to have many friends and suitors. In her youth, she happily married a high-ranking officer in the imperial army and they began their life together. Life was calm and peaceful, until it wasn’t.

            In March 1917, a group of traitors in the Duma started the flame of revolution. They took over the government and forced Tsar Nicholas to abdicate his throne. The Tsar and his family were imprisoned in their own home and were herded from place to place like livestock. Anna did not understand how this could have happened. There was a great world war going on at the time. It was rumored to be a war of such magnitude that it would be the war to end all wars. How could anyone think of leading a revolution in a country in the middle of warfare? It was suicidal. It left the Soviet people vulnerable and weak.

            During the time of the provisional government, there were rumors about the various factions that existed among the Communists. There was talk of civil war and people in Anna’s circle of friends began to worry for their own safety. People began packing up their belongings and leaving. Then, civil war broke out and the entire country fell into a state of chaos and turmoil. Suddenly, news came that the royal family had been murdered – Tsar Nicholas, his wife, and their five children. In addition, countless servants and friends of the royal family were killed. At this point, Anna was certain that they were coming for her and her husband. So, they took their most necessary belongings and ran. Later on, she heard the Vladimir Lenin had led his Bolshevik party to victory and that they had begun a process of taking possessions and land from the nobility and giving it to the poor. Anyone who resisted was shot.

            Anna knew that her home and possessions were gone, but she was grateful to be alive. Although it was completely different life in the country from her life as a noblewoman, they survived – mostly due to her husband’s uncanny ability to do anything. They had three children during that time – two boys and a girl. She stayed at home to raise the children, while her husband worked in town. Everything was beginning to get to some state of normalcy.

             Yet the rumors still haunted them. They heard that in 1922 a man by the name of Joseph Stalin had taken control of the Communist Party and that he had a tight regime. There were rumors that the NKVD, an internal affairs sector of the government, was actually a secret police force created by Stalin to eliminate any doubt in his power. There were stories of neighbors reporting each other to the government. No one could tell who was telling the truth so everyone was killed. There were tales of men coming in the middle of the night and taking people away. Is this what happened?

            As she approached the police station, Anna took a deep breath to clear her head. She opened the door and let her children walk in first. Then, she came in and took a look around. It was a crowded room filled with all sorts of people – men, women, children, young, and old. She looked over to the desk and saw a quaint secretary sitting busy at work. Anna approached her and said, “Umm, excuse me, my husband disappeared three days ago, could you help me?” The secretary look up to see who had spoken, but her eyes immediately darted to the three little children that stood with this woman. She motioned for the woman to lean forward and whispered, “For your children’s sake, stop asking questions and go home.” Anna quickly took hold of her children’s hands and left the police station for in her mind she had heard only three words, “Run and hide.”

          The title of my collage is “Exploration → Progress.” It is based on the idea that exploration fosters progress in our society. This idea is the general truth that I came to when I was thinking about the theme of cultural encounters. Cultural encounters are a form of exploration because through these experiences you are able to learn about the various groups of people in the world. With this new understanding comes progress because by using the knowledge that you obtained during your cultural encounter, you can create something magnificent – a relationship, an idea, or something material.

            The beginning of my collage lies in the small sticker of a little adventurer in the bottom of the piece. He represents exploration. The rest of the piece shows the concept of progress. This variance in size was intentional – I wanted to show how much could result from the little effort that it takes to go out into the world and explore. However, I chose a black background to show that although we know so much by now, there is still a lot more that is unknown by us. The black background is first broken up by a diagonal line of three windows. They are meant to alert the viewer that sight is extremely important in this piece. Furthermore, the windows parallel the rectangular windows that exist in the rest of the piece.

            Each picture in the collage represents a window into either the past or the present. The window to the present is juxtaposed on top of the window to the past to show the progress that humanity has made. For example, to show progress in art, the window portraying modern art overlaps the window showing classical Renaissance art. The other fields portrayed in this collage are architecture, science, and nature. These forms are some of the basic elements that make up a group’s culture. In addition, I tried to keep the colors of these windows dark in order to emphasize how much we still do not know.

            However, to commemorate all that we have achieved, I included several small things written in a bright silver color, such as physics and mathematics formulas, a drawing of the concept of perspective, a chemical molecule, a new fact about nature, and a 3-D shape. These bright fragments of information are supposed to show the small specks of knowledge that we have discovered – or the small specks of light that have penetrated the darkness of the unknown. Finally, there is a statement that looks to future, written on the bottom next to the exploration figure, which states, “6 billion to lead us.” It is written in the same silver color as the fragments of light, but must be looked at from a certain angle in order to be seen. This once again reminds the viewer about the importance of sight.

francesrichey.com

Intimate. It is the best word available in the English language to describe Frances Richey. It describes everything about her – from her demeanor to her stories, and especially to her presence in a room. Her intimacy was recently put on display at a recent reading at the Macaulay Honor College. She read several selections from her new collection of poems, entitled The Warrior. These poems chronicle the ever-changing emotions that she felt when her son, Ben, was deployed to fight in Iraq.

As told to the audience by Richey before she began reading her poems, this collection of poems was a way to talk to her son Ben – a way to tell him things that she could not tell him face-to-face. The reading took place at the intimate downstairs cabaret room in 35 West 67^th Street. In addition to conveying her purpose for writing these poems, Richey began by thanking the people who had made the event possible – Zoe Sheehan and Roslyn Bernstein. It was an extremely intimate beginning. Not only did Richey reveal two of her close friends, but she also told the personal story of how these poems came to be. She said that she had a lot of emotions rise up in her when her son was deployed to Iraq and that writing poetry was her medium for releasing what she felt inside her.

The result of her efforts was spectacular. During the reading she read several poems from the collection including “The Aztec Empire” and “Letters.” One of her most insightful poems was entitled “Kill School.” It related an experience in which Richey had asked her son about the training that he underwent to become a Green Beret. After he told her about a gruesome training exercise involving a rabbit, she writes that he said, “You said you wanted to know.” This single phrase describes everything that has to do with this collection. Richey wrote it for her son to express to him the emotions that he wanted to know about, but that she could not talk about. These poems allowed a bridge of communication to be built between the two so that finally, they started talking again instead of simply saying things.

After reading several of the poems, Richey went into a detailed discussion on her views of poetry. She believes that “poetry is really music and sound.” Richey revealed that cafés were her favorite places to write because by drowning out the bustle of a busy coffee shop, she is able to focus on the harmony of her poems. Poems do not have to rhyme, she said, but they do need to flow like small symphonies.

Richey spoke a lot about how she became a writer. She had written in college, and when she chose a career in business, it also involved a more concrete, but still descriptive form of writing. Then, her father died and she decided to begin writing poetry again. She took several writing classes and established poets as her mentors. With this reawakening, she quit her job in the business industry and became a full-time writer, with a small job as a yoga instructor on the side. Then, she revealed the real reason that she became a writer when she said, “I want to go out doing something I really love,” and love is a fitting reason for Richey is a woman of emotion and intimacy.

International Center of Photography

His photographs spanned a continent, yet his message was heard worldwide. Inspired by the work of his brother Robert Capa, a prominent photojournalist, Cornell Capa set out on a journey at the young age of 18 to become a “concerned photographer.” Brian Wallis, the curator of the current exhibit of Capa’s work at the International Center of Photography, described a “concerned photographer” as a photographer who “demonstrated in their work a humanitarian impulse to use pictures to educate and change the world, not just to record it.” This exhibit entitled “Cornell Capa: Concerned Photographer” is a presentation of Capa journey to reveal the conditions of the human spirit around the world.

The majority of the exhibition focuses on Capa’s work in South America. His photographs capture the political and social turmoil that existed across the continent – from Guatemala to Peru. According to Wallis, Capa’s photographs are “a believable mirror of the human condition, a mirror that mankind must finally face.” Each photograph is an image of the deeper meaning behind the event that is seen happening. One of his most telling photographs is “Woman and child at clinic,” which shows a woman and her child at a clinic in El Salvador. The figures of the woman and child in lower right-hand corner offer a stark contrast to a photograph of a typical American woman and child in the upper left-hand corner. The tension of this scene lies in the vast space of the wall that exists between these two groups of figures. The tension is further emphasized in the difference of the expressions in the mothers’ faces. The American mother is happy and smiling, while the El Salvadorian mother seems concerned.

Another part of the exhibition focuses on Capa’s work in the United States. In particular, there is a wonderful series on Robert F. Kennedy. Cornell Capa was given access to Robert F. Kennedy’s personal quarters during the 1960 presidential campaign while photographing for Life magazine. There is one extraordinary close-up of Robert F. Kennedy on a plane entitled “Robert F. Kennedy on board a plane to Albany.” What makes this image so extraordinary is how close Capa is able to get to Robert F. Kennedy without him noticing. This extreme close-up emphasizes the determination and leadership quality of Robert F. Kennedy. In this image it is clear that Robert F. Kennedy was someone who cared about the American people and devoted his entire life to their lives better. Through this portrait, Capa asserts that Robert F. Kennedy is a model – a hero.

Inspired at an early age, Cornell Capa traveled to Paris at only 18 to study under his famous brother. Throughout his lifetime as a photographer, Capa achieved many amazing feats. He was a member of Magnum Photos, a highly respected photographic cooperative. He thoroughly documented the various political and social movements of South American countries and had exclusive access to show American politicians such as Robert F. Kennedy in a light that no one else could have seen. However, through all of his many accomplishments, Capa always carried a powerful message – that we, as inhabitants of this planet, have a responsibility to be aware of the political and social environments that exist in the world and that we must do all that we can to aid those who are stuck in environments defined by social and political turmoil.

www.aboutfacetheater.com

     The set up is rather simple – one man, a small stage, a small audience. Even the theater, located between the huge luminescent attractions of 42nd street, is so small that it is difficult to find. Yet what happens in The Duke Theater night after night can only be described as grand. Adopting the unusual genre of a hip-hop musical, Clay is able to exhilarate its audiences with its dramatic lighting effects and thunderous music.

     The storyline of Clay emphasizes the importance of listening – listening to the stories that the words of hip-hop song relate. However, it is the music of the play that guides the audience through the various emotional climaxes and troughs of the main character, Cliff. When he is angry, the music explodes into an array of violent harmonies and when he is confused, the music flows in an eerie melody of discordant fragments. The words merely relate what is happening on stage, but it is the music that tells the audience what meaning these events have.

     Although it was spectacular, the music was only half of the lyrical elements that make the show a success. The other half is Matt Sax – the wonderful young actor who takes on the challenge of playing the extensive variety of characters present in Clay. His ability to adopt the personality quirks of each character as well as the range of different voices allow Sax to dominate the stage for the duration of the show. Although he is the only person on the stage, he is able to create an alternate presence for each of the characters. In addition, Sax’s ability to rap and perform for two hours straight is a testament to both his ability as an artist as well as his large reservoir of energy.

     The lighting effects in the show further aid the music in conveying to the audience the emotions of the show’s characters. Lighting is used to highlight both significant emotional instances as well as plot events. Chaos is portrayed through the twirling beams of colorful light, while a gunshot is expressed through the envelopment of the audience in a bright white light.

     The story of Clay is the classic story of a young man who responds to the emotional pressures cast upon him by his dysfunctional family by turning to art as a form of expression – in Cliff’s case, his medium is hip-hop music. However, in many ways, this show is innovative. Its format consists of the unusual genre of hip-hop musical, which is further complicated by the fact that this is a one-man show. It is this unique format that allows Matt Sax to create an impressive performance out of an otherwise, predictable story.

     Street photography is a difficult art form. Not only is it a type of photography that encompasses a multitude of subjects, but it is also a form that is vulnerable to the influence of many outside factors. As a result, it is always a new experience even if the photographer has been shooting street photography for years. However, the result is always extraordinary because there is a sense of intimacy with the subject that arises from the photographer’s need to overcome the many obstacles that exist in the process of shooting street photography.

     I have not been shooting street photography for years, but I do have some experience with it. As a required part of the Stuyvesant High School curriculum, I had to take a technical class and since I had always been interested in photography, I decided to take the black and white photography course. I learned how to photograph everything from landscapes to portraits and since Stuyvesant was located in New York City, the streets became the subjects of the various photography projects. It was an amazing experience because not only did I get to explore the streets of New York City, but I also learned to look at the world in a different way – through a different lens.

     This past experience, however, was burdensome in terms of this new street photography project. In my previous class, my camera was a Pentax K1000 – a black and white film, SLR camera. For this project, I used a Kodak CX6230 – a color, automatic camera. My biggest frustration in using this new camera was that I could not control the focus or exposure. I could not achieve any special effects that are possible due to the control that an SLR camera gives its user over the focus and exposure. Furthermore, there were times when the exposure automatically chosen by the Kodak camera was just plain wrong and I could not do anything to change it except to try to move to a new location where the lighting would be different.

     Working in color rather than in black and white was also a new experience. I finally understood why photographers often choose one over the other. Black and white photography allows the photographer to perfect the basic elements such as composition, focus, and subject matter. Adding color to a photograph means adding a whole new aspect to the image. It makes the image more complex and interesting, but it also becomes another element that the photographer must consider and control. Working with black and white film, I became focused on controlling things like composition and the point of view in a photograph. As a result, I was thrown off balance when the element of color was suddenly added to the process. When I first started shooting photographs for this project, I got some images that had great composition and focus, but they looked dull. I realized that the problem was that I had not been considering color and once that aspect of a photograph gained importance in my mind, my shots were more successful.

     In addition, practicing straight photography made me more careful as a photographer during this project. Due to the fact that my previous class involved working with film, a large portion of the instruction was focused on manipulation in the development process. However, for this project I had no darkroom – not even Photoshop. Therefore, there was no way that I could manipulate my image after I had shot it. The only part of using the Kodak camera that did not lead me to become frustrated was that it was digital camera and allowed me to immediately see what image I had captured. Therefore, if I did not like what I saw, I could simply try again. In film photography, this is not possible. All you can do is carefully plan the shot and then hope that the image comes out as well as you think it should have.

     The other factor that presented a substantial challenge for me was the weather. Most of the time it was raining and therefore, it was impossible to photograph anything. Then, half the time that it was not raining, it was overcast. In black and white photography, this would not have been as much of a problem because the image would have just come out a little grayer than it normally would. However, in color photography, shooting on a cloudy day was a complication because the gray, which was insignificant in black and white photography, made the images bland in color photography.

     Even though there were many obstacles that I had to overcome as a photographer, I am pleased by my end product. The theme of my photographs was not a particular cultural encounter, but rather a guide on how people should look at the world in order to find them. Each image is an example of a different lens that a person could look through to find the cultural encounters that exist all around them. So, my photographs do not have titles because the focus of each image is not the subject, but the point of view from which the subject is seen. I chose various static objects for the “subjects” of my photographs because they allowed me to take the time to find the particular point of view that I wanted to portray.

     Sight became my subject for this project because it is the first thing that I think of when the word photography is mentioned. Not only the process of looking through a viewfinder or looking at a photograph, but also looking at the world and seeing the moments and images that deserve to be eternally preserved in a photograph. When I first learned the art of photography, I learned to look at the world in a different way. I learned to look for the tiniest details as well as the expansive views. This gift of sight that photography has given me is what inspired me to try and show other people how to see through my photographs.

Metropolitan Opera

               It was the perfect story for an opera. The drama and tension that is crucial to the success of the performance was inherent in the subject. Furthermore, one of the greatest composers of our time produced the music that tells the tale of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Yet somewhere along the road from conception to performance, the opera Doctor Atomic fell apart. The final product was a discordant ensemble of operatic brilliance and stale segments.

              Gerald Finley, the baritone that has sung the part of J. Robert Oppenheimer since the debut of Doctor Atomic in San Francisco, was the shining and most consistent performer in the show. His arias were moments of emotional climax. As he sung the poem “Batter My Heart” by John Donne, Finley’s voice filled the opera house with the pain and self-doubt that Oppenheimer experienced as he got closer and closer to the creation of the atomic bomb. Similarly the music of John Adams aided in keeping the opera from being a complete failure. The music was riveting and emotional even though it incorporated many technical sounds. The use of these sounds, such airplanes flying and jackhammers working, helped to remind the audience of the time in which the opera took place – an era filled with the excitement of scientific discovery.

            Although there were moments when the opera seemed to be a masterpiece, these moments were often broken up by segments that were extremely static. The performances of most of the singers were unimpressive and forgettable. For example, Sasha Cooke, who sings the part of Kitty Oppenheimer, has a breath-taking voice, and yet the parts that she sung did not seem to fit her and this made her performance ineffective. This problem was probably due to the fact that John Adams had to alter the music to fit Cooke’s voice because it was originally meant for a much higher voice. However, singers for whom the composition was not changed also had difficulty. Eric Owens, who sings the part of General Leslie Groves, also had a great voice; however, his portrayal of Groves as an overweight and unconfident man made the character forgettable. The set helped add to the stagnant mood of the opera. Although it was original in its design, the constant changing from one set design to another made the audience restless. It was made worse by the excessive dramatizing of the changes, which were slowed down in order to fit the music.  
          

           The creation of Doctor Atomic began with the search for an American Faust. John Adams and Peter Sellars, the librettist, found him in the character of J. Robert Oppenheimer – the leading figure in the quest for the atomic bomb. However, now, it seems that the opera itself had become a more suitable example of an American Faust than the story of Oppenheimer. In its quest to capture the emotional tension that took place at Los Alamos in those days right before the explosion of the atomic bomb, it lost sight of the individuals that were there at Los Alamos – the people who were caught in the middle of this historic event. Instead of focusing on the tension between the people of Los Alamos, Doctor Atomic attempts to grasp the ungraspable tension between one man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the entire world. This impossible quest is what has led Doctor Atomic to its downfall.