Certain Peculiarities of the Dramaturgical and Compositional Structure of John Adams’ Opera Doctor Atomic

Abstract

Abstract. The article is devoted to the study of John Adams’ opera which possesses
documentary features. This is stipulated not only to the composer turning to real events from
American history, but also by his inclusion of documentary texts, both verbal and audial, into
the text of the opera. The composer Adams and the theater producer Peter Sellars were able to
find a special non-judgmental mode of manifestation of a real historical plotline, leaving the
arrangement of the basic semantic accents to the audience. From the perspective of the author of
the article, the groundwork of avant-garde theater and performative practices have been placed at
the basis of both the musical and the directorial experiment. Two parameters of analysis – namely,
the temporal and the spatial – have been chosen for disclosing the novelty of dramaturgical and
compositional principles of experimental opera performance. Stemming from the special role of
sound design and of its imaginative use by Mark Gray, the composer and the producer were able
by means of a special sound balance, unusual electronic colors and transmission of nations of
sound realities to create, on the one hand, an effect of the presence of the audience, which is placed
at the “epicenter,” and on the other hand, an illusion of spatial displacement. To achieve these
goals, the authors made use of the surrounding sound, which previously was inherent exclusively
to the cinematograph. This made it possible to create an immersive acoustic space which destroys
the boundary between reality and art. At the same time, the play with the temporal parameters,
as is shown in the article, is unfolded by means of juxtaposing psychological and real time. And
while the former is solved on the basis of musical allusions to the music of Stravinsky, Wagner,
Orff and Debussy and demonstrates the inner psychological experience of the motion of time
by the protagonists, real time is materialized in the sound of rhythmic-ostinato formations. The
conclusions stress the influence of performativity on the operatic dramaturgy and compositional
design of the opera Doctor Atomic.

Keywords: John Adams, Peter Sellars, documentary musical theater, opera Doctor Atomic,
performative musical practices