![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Things Learned
Dec. 18th, 2007 12:22 pmThe opera Dr. Atomic? It really kinda sucks. I'm sure there was some deeper symbolism that I was missing or something, so I'll be happy to say that it was my not understanding the opera, not the opera itself. Here are some things I particularly didn't like:
1. Every phrase of every song ended on a note that I didn't expect. When I hear music, I always can kind of guess what the last note will resolve to, and when I don't it makes me uneasy. See also: Miles Davis.
2. There were long dischordant instrumental parts at odd times that made the opera go on at least a good 30 minutes longer than necessary. Many of these were accompianied by West-Side-Story-like dancing that seemed to have no point.
3. There were long chunks of unnecessary dialog that could have shaved off another half hour. Like at the end of Act I when Oppenheimer tells General Graves that he's fat, and Graves sings a five minute passage about the diets he's tried, and the brownies he's eaten, and the calories in them... DUMB. I suppose it was supposed to show how they were trying to distract themselves from the scariness of the bomb test, but it was just DUMB.
4. The second act started with Mrs. Oppenheimer and her native maid in their living room, and then they stayed there the whole time. Well, the maid left several times with three girls who I think were her kids, only to come back to comfort Mrs. O while she was writing around in a scene that i THOUGHT had nothing to do with her. And then the maid would sing about cloud-flowers blossoming and I would roll my eyes.
5. People laying around on stage for huge chunks of time. Again, I think it was all to make a point, which was lost on me unless the point was that the opera sucked and the time would be better spent sleeping.
Blah blah blah. We still had fun because we were out together and held hands and loved each other, and that's more important that quality opera anyway.
Edited to add: There's a video review (very positive) with very short clips of the opera here.
1. Every phrase of every song ended on a note that I didn't expect. When I hear music, I always can kind of guess what the last note will resolve to, and when I don't it makes me uneasy. See also: Miles Davis.
2. There were long dischordant instrumental parts at odd times that made the opera go on at least a good 30 minutes longer than necessary. Many of these were accompianied by West-Side-Story-like dancing that seemed to have no point.
3. There were long chunks of unnecessary dialog that could have shaved off another half hour. Like at the end of Act I when Oppenheimer tells General Graves that he's fat, and Graves sings a five minute passage about the diets he's tried, and the brownies he's eaten, and the calories in them... DUMB. I suppose it was supposed to show how they were trying to distract themselves from the scariness of the bomb test, but it was just DUMB.
4. The second act started with Mrs. Oppenheimer and her native maid in their living room, and then they stayed there the whole time. Well, the maid left several times with three girls who I think were her kids, only to come back to comfort Mrs. O while she was writing around in a scene that i THOUGHT had nothing to do with her. And then the maid would sing about cloud-flowers blossoming and I would roll my eyes.
5. People laying around on stage for huge chunks of time. Again, I think it was all to make a point, which was lost on me unless the point was that the opera sucked and the time would be better spent sleeping.
Blah blah blah. We still had fun because we were out together and held hands and loved each other, and that's more important that quality opera anyway.
Edited to add: There's a video review (very positive) with very short clips of the opera here.
