Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Trouble in Tahiti, opéra en 1 acte et 7 scènes

John Coolidge Adams (1947-)
Doctor Atomic, opéra en 2 actes

Philip Glass (1937-)
The Perfect American, opéra en 2 actes et 13 scènes

Stephanie Novacek
Karl Daymond
City of London Sinfonia
Paul Daniel, direction (Trouble in Tahiti)
Gerald Finley
Jessica Rivera
Eric Owens
Richard Paul Fink
James Maddalena
Thomas Glenn
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Lawrence Renes, direction
Peter Sellars, mise en scène (Doctor Atomic)
Christopher Purves (Walt Disney)
David Pittsinger (Roy)
Donald Kaasch (Dantine)
Janis Kelly (Hazel George)
Marie McLaughlin (Lillian Disney)
Sarah Tynan (Sharon)
Nazan Fikret (Diane)
Rosie Lomas (Lucy Josh)
The Improbable Skills Ensemble
Orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real
Dennis Russell Davies, direction
Phelim McDermott, direction artistique (The Perfect American)

This special set brings together three of America’s most lauded contemporary operas: John Adams’s Dr Atomic, a riveting morality drama centring on J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists at the test site of the world’s first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico; The Perfect American, Philip Glass’s striking portrayal of the ‘real’ Walt Disney, based on a series of reflections and memories which take place during the icon’s final cancer-ridden months; and the 2001 cinematic film version of Trouble in Tahiti, Bernstein’s one-act satire on American suburban married life, its jazz- and musical comedy-inspired score then a path-breaking fusion of lyric art with popular entertainment. Consummate direction (with librettist Peter Sellars at the helm for Dr Atomic), compelling designs, brilliant casting and stand-out performances – among them Gerald Finley’s Oppenheimer and Christopher Purves’s Walt Disney – unite these three very different works which collectively reflect the astonishing variety of style and form that characterises 20th-century opera.