Thrilling Act 1 finale ("Batter my heart") from John Adams' Doctor Atomic

Here's the end of Act 1 from John Adam's acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic: Oppenheimer's intense and exciting aria "Batter my heart". It's wonderfully sung by baritone Gerald Finley (Amsterdam, 2007).

[@EIDOSeidos]

When I saw this aria at the opera house, it blew my mind: something like this written in my lifetime, and very recently, the best setting of Donne's sonnet imaginable.

[@georgiathoreaulasalle6732]

*Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.* (John Donne sonnet)

[@bigbenhebdomadarius6252]

This is my most favorite of all Donne's poems. It never occurred to me to expect it in an Adams opera. Does its presence in the opera result from Adams's appreciation of it, or does it mean that it had significance for Oppenheimer as well? The way Finley sings it, it's enough to break your heart.

[@donaldb1]

Adams has history with Donne. He used Donne's poem Negative Love, or The Nothing for the first part of his choral work Harmonium.

[@sabrinabradford7562]

+BigBen Hebdomadarius When Oppenheimer named the test site of the atom bomb "Trinity", he had this particular sonnet in mind, obviously being deeply conflicted his own creation's immense destructive power.

[@ryanmckinstry1121]

"Madonna!"Hayranim! "Muerta a Franco!"

[@theogoldberg8919]

Thanks very much for the lyrics

[@JAPARADISIR]

Extremely beautiful sung,God Bless mr Gerald Finley and the composer John Adams for such a jewel in the comtemporay music over this sonnet of John Donne

[@briet70]

I got to sing this years ago as a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus with Gerald Finley. It was beyond incredible. I have times where I NEED to just sit and listen to this aria. Ah.

[@sharky-os2lm]

Incredible, just incredible! What a powerful, moving aria this is and Finley's voice is so beautifully emotional. I had gooseflesh by the end. Oppenheimer's singing of the Donne sonnet, makes for a very powerful act ending, and the sonnet fits the mood of the music, I think, brilliantly . . . ideally.

[@Keytaster]

great singing, extremely beautiful incorporation of John Donne's poem... and... wow... the outro just blows me away every time I hear it. So much passion and power... I'm always utterly enthralled by this piece, never fails to give me goosebumps

[@hazelshadeful]

God, this still gets me. Glad to find this video still up!

[@moirasmith]

My favourite Donne poem. Thank you for making me aware of this wonderful music adaptation/performance.

[@iwo71]

Last night I saw the ENO production. G Finley made me cry with this aria...

[@andrewhague1521]

A wonderful setting of a still more wonderful poem. It's astonishing the way that Peter Sellers could craft a coherent libretto from such diverse sources as Baudelaire, the Bhagavad gita and of course John Donne.

[@ryanmckinstry1121]

Madonna!

[@theogoldberg8919]

Barbara Hannigan got me there. She advised me to study this Aria during a masterclass in Paris. So proud it sounds wonderful and music to my ears 🎶🎶😍😍🤩🤩🤩

[@jembe415]

I just saw the Doctor Atomic Symphony at Carnegie Hall, which uses this aria as its climax (the baritone part becomes a gorgeous trumpet solo). It's a fantastic aria, and it's great to be able to hear the original!

[@SaraMacKimmie]

I saw this in January at the Lyric in Chicago and I thought it was monumental. This aria in particular is definitely some of Adams' best work.

[@Xem92]

Something about this video seems so stupendously real; as if I'm watching this in person. It gives me chills.

[@enriquesanchez2001]

GERALD FINELY IS MIRACULOUS ♥♥♥♥♥

[@sandywaddell4303]

I agree wholeheartedly.

[@FusionSummit]

I cannot describe how beautiful this is. Minimalism is so human. :) the repeated i-V interlude with the d pedal in dissonance with the c# is just haunting and really gets the mental picture across of the torturous nature of the sonnet. The setting of the first stanza twice with a more varied interlude and slightly, only slightly engorged orchestration amplifies Adam's "dis-use" of the orchestra. A lot of modern opera uses the orchestra to convey the emotion and therefore is a compositional devi

[@gomongio]

one of my fav arias since the first time i heard it.... touching to the bones the "batter my heart" part...

[@Platypi007]

Yeah, I am excited about the Met doing this as well, glad it'll be one of the HD broadcasts this year!

[@Martinowor]

@iwo71 Finley is absolutely incredible, and the aria is amazing

[@Homoclassicus]

That's ridiculous. All languages can be set to Opera. One's got to have the right talent, not the "right" language. No wonder there have been more English-language good operas in the last 50 or 60 years than Italian-language operas, even though Italian is widely regarded as the genuine "operatic" language. All this "there are languages which are not for opera" bullshit was discarded since the late 19th century. Actually, Purcell in the 1600s already showed how melodical English can sound.

[@ronaldmartin4664]

You are absolutely correct. Arguably, tge greatest opera of the 20th century is Hershwin's Porgy & Bess, & the excellent libretto of that (mainly bt DuBose Heyward) is in the vernacular

[@ronaldmartin4664]

Sorry for the typos. I'm typing on my phone. I refer to Gershwin's opera, of course.

[@Homoclassicus]

You're right, indeed. I'll correct that. Thanks for noting it.

[@UndefinedMari]

Exactly my thoughts.. Very powerful.

[@ayoramsterdam]

Wow, tears in my eyes: apart from the text, it is soo moving. Thanks also to the director.

[@EpicNarwhal]

My school's marching band is using the instrumental part of this song in our marching show.

[@KeithOtisEdwards]

Cool ! Was it announced as an opera? I recall that The Star of Indiana Band once did the oratorio _Belshazzar’s Feast_ by William Walton on the field.

[@thefancychicken]

thats me, third from the left, front and center.... was great fun, i love the music

[@Martinowor]

@jamesa272 I, Too, saw the production at the Met, and while it was handsome, it didn't work like the the barer-boned production in Amsterdam -- Peter sellars really knew what he was doing. And in any case, Gerald Finley was great in both productions.

[@nickmalinowski04]

@PngnCake I paid $20 for a rush ticket to see this at the Met and sat in the 8th row. It was wonderful.

[@mfjdv2020]

Però, dovresti ammettere che quest'aria è semplicemente geniale ... che musica, che emozione!

[@karlajaeger2082]

Saw this on pbs. I watched every fucking moment

[@chrisjarrett4263]

I hav written a WHOLE opera about John Donne. The poems are amazing. I certainly would have toned this differently, but I can enjoy it anyway...

[@tomaskukla]

I saw the opera yesterday (live from MET) and I think it's great masterpiece. I don't know about what are you talking saying it was "a mess". I must disagree. Everything went well yesterday. Singers and orchestra were brilliant and also piece was directed well.

[@johncrwarner]

Purcell's operas - what little we have of them are stunning and I have to say that Benjamin Britten's operas are also great settings of English - they do benefit from native speaker intonations as Britten's music is so supportive of the language and singing that if the singer's intonation is wrong it sounds very strange. There are the Handel oratorios which are great settings of English texts.

[@KeithOtisEdwards]

I leave you to your opinion of what is the pinnacle of music in the 19th or 20th century, but this aria is certainly, thus far, in the 21st century, the highest point of music. As Caruso set the mark with "Vesti la Giubba" in the 20th century, so does Finley with this aria in the 21st. The rest of the opera is not equal to this. In act 3 they spend 20 minutes shouting about the weather. The reason is obvious. The rest of the opera suffers from a libretto by Peter Sellars, but the words to this passion are by John Donne.

[@FusionSummit]

Hahah. I have the DVD too! I bought it AFTER I made that comment 5 months ago. Go figure. John has repeatedly said that there was no minimalism proper in this piece. You're correct, as you should be, that there is limited harmonic material. I have examined the full score that my school has, and there is definitely limited variation, which can all be heard. The reason it ISN'T minimalist, is because rather than change gradually over time, the material is treated formally rather than organically

[@mfjdv2020]

Comunque il poeta John Donne sarebbe un'ispirazione per qualsiasi compositore!

[@DIEZAUBERFLOTEMENSCH]

the music of our age

[@StandingRoom]

@eniotnasnyw Er is een promotie-DVD uit ("De Nederlandse Opera - A world-class opera company") met fragmenten uit DNO-producties tussen 1994 en 2009, waaronder ook deze aria. Geen idee of hij gewoon verkocht wordt, ik kreeg hem zelf in ieder geval gratis bij aankoop van een andere DVD in het Muziektheater.

[@evildoctorcow]

Amazing. Does anyone know if there is a recording of this out? These operas don't often come to Australia.

[@dtkane]

Why couldn't I get Pamina's "Ach, ich fuhl's" out of my head during the intermission and, again, after listening to this clip?

[@SeadogDriftwood]

@Artem_sXe, you are a fool if you truly believe that. As @Homoclassicus rightly said, "All languages can be set to opera". The concept of one language sounding better than another is an antiquated holdover from the bloody days of ultra-nationalism. "My language sounds better than your language" - such claims amount to childish extensions of "I'm better than you" and "I'm more deserving of good things than you are." However, I do not expect to convince you through rebuke alone. If you require proof of the dramatic musical qualities of other languages, listen to "Tulen Synty" or "The Origin of Fire", an oratorio for tenor soloist, men's choir and orchestra, by Jean Sibelius. The text is in Finnish, a language which, in terms of sound, shares some similar qualities to your native Italian, good @Artem_sXe. It is due to those similarities that I have singled out Tulen Synty. Truly, any language can be used in opera. One needs only a librettist fluent in that language and a composer who can identify with the words and what they signify. If, for example, an Ojibwe poet/author and a composer familiar with Ojibwe were to work together, a perfectly legitimate work could emerge, singing in that Algonquian tongue. Indeed, I once had an idea for making an extremely short operatic scene with a Hittite libretto. All languages can be sung.

[@Homoclassicus]

SeadogDriftwood Exactly! Excellent comment.

[@gomongio]

+SeadogDriftwood Not at all. What you express and that's scorn for nationalisms and reason is just the same old excuse that all you Liberals say to divert attention from everytime you fail. Pathetic! ... Now, relating to languages and opera, I can say that all depends on the text and the scores from a particular work. For example, French is a beautiful language and so on, songs in French can be ones of the prettiest even, but most of the times I get bored when listening to operas in that language. Fortunately for some I have an Italian or Russian version (for example Gounod's Faust sung in Russian is simply perfect and the only way I can listen to that opera), but I must say that I can't imagine Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande sung in any language but French. Life is never black or white, but full of mixtures. Stop blaming the rest and assume reality and your own mistakes, worldlings!

[@thricegreatart]

+SeadogDriftwood Why should languages sound equally good? Are you saying that YOU find all of them, even your own, equally aesthetically pleasing? (Have you listened to all of them?) Is there something about culture that magically equalizes aesthetics across societies? Or is your claim that we are partial toward our own language and therefore our aesthetic judgments are untrustworthy? (If so, how does it affect your case if I, a native english speaker, happen to think english is less suited to opera than italian?)

[@ryanmckinstry1121]

EXCACTA MUNDO!

[@eniotnasnyw]

I just saw this part of the film or clip taken of this opera where finley sings this aria. Ik zag zoëven een clip tijdens het programma van NTR 'De lange nacht van de klassieke muziek' op 25/12/2011. Niet alleen prachtige gezongen maar ook knap geacteerd door Finley. Ik was helaas te laat om het op te nemen, maar is er iemand die de clip op youtube kan plaatsen? Gelukkig is er al deze opname. Dank.

[@FruitMeate]

The harmony in the instrumental section is 'minimal' in that it uses very sparse material. The form is strophic, but also there is a lot of repetition. Of course, tossing on a label like 'minimalist' is always problematic, but you're right to point out that this music is much less minimal than what you hear in other minimalist pieces. Why someone would dismiss such techniques as "horrible music," however, evades me completely. When I watched the DVD of this, this one did a real number on me.

[@operaperu]

awesome! is this recording from a broadcast? sounds superb!

[@duratetube]

I think the sets falling was meant to suggest those old videos of buildings being blown out during the atomic bomb testing in the 1950's.

[@Caboose91206]

The $25 seats at the Met aren't even bad-- I almost prefer the family circle (which sometimes are low as $15) to the dress circle because of the beautiful openness and the ceiling-- it's not a bad view of the stage at all unless you get the obstructed view seats meant for the visually-impaired right at the sides of the stage

[@Homoclassicus]

Yes, of course, Britten and the Handel oratorios are essential demonstrations of how English can be set to lyrical singing and sound wonderful. What can sound more beautiful than a good "O Jove in piety" from Handel's Semele or "Embroidery in childhood" from Britten's Peter Grimes? :-)

[@moirasmith]

@ybravura This aria was written - not in 'this century' - but by John Donne (b. 1572). Doubt he knew the atomic bomb was coming. Otherwise, he might have written the whole thing .... Can recommend John Donne's poetry, both sacred and 'profane'. He ended up Dean of St Paul's Cathedral and was an interesting guy.

[@mfjdv2020]

Isn't this a poem by John Donne? Or am I wrong?

[@MuscleDaddyCMH]

Yes, same here. All that damn chugging in Handel.......and I say that as a harpsichordist in a Baroque ensemble.........chug chug chug..:0

[@KeithOtisEdwards]

From what I've heard, this is the most moving piece written in this century. Not the entire opera, mind you -- just this aria. There may be another masterpiece of which I am unaware, and another piece may eventually be written which outdoes this, but so far, this is the greatest piece of music of the 21st century.

[@Thersonlyone]

Why has the other video been taken down? I'm a bit confused, it was a beautiful advert for the opera

[@MusicalPhantom08]

I kinda thought the same thing. Perhaps there's a correlation between the two settings or their meaning?

[@ProgramaVooDooShow]

Super channel! Mega videos!!! Where are you from?

[@lucyhfg]

much of the libretto for this opera comes from the writings and readings of Oppenheimer at the time, hence the Donne

[@KeithOtisEdwards]

Not that much. The bedroom scene of Act II is entirely Peter Sellars. A long portion of the third act is them hollering about the weather.

[@HowardFair]

Never was an opera fan, but now I am because of this piece. Too bad this stuff is mostly for the rich... I just can't afford the Met

[@fuzzyami]

Why isn't there a "replay-forever" button? :/

[@larchgirl]

John Adams has not been "minimalist" in the Reich/Glass sense for a long time, starting with his Harmonielehre. He is often considered postminimalist because of the way he combines minimalist elements and rhythms with late romantic elements.

[@Homoclassicus]

@doobeedoobeedooo I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I think more people would be disappointed if a video would'n't even have photos of the production and the singer. Perhaps you haven't seen enough audio videos in KZbin, but in general those who upload them, of course, won't just put the audio recording and nothing more, but rather include photos that are directly related to the recording (a photo of the singer, of a production of the opera, etc.).

[@Homoclassicus]

@doobeedoobeedooo I see. Don't worry, I didn't think you attacked me at all, but it's good to observe that I didn't intend to atract people to WATCH to a video instead of just listening to an audio recording. I mean it's good to make it very clear because I did see videos in YT that had only audio but were uploaded with pictures of actual opera videos, so that people could indeed mistake them for a real video. I don't think that's completely "honest". :-)

[@PngnCake]

the opera started well, the middle was ok although this aria was amazing. however, the end was SO GOOD. it gave the feeling that the whole stage was about to crash and kill the scientists. the fact that the other parts of the opera weren't amazing was ok because the end was so good you forgot about the moments that were disappointing. At least, thats how it was for me.

[@iwo71]

Unbearably touching is how I found the London performance last night.

[@PngnCake]

....some of the seats are like 25$. those seats are bad but its worth it.

[@mfjdv2020]

I understand how you feel - I simply don't understand why people run mad about Handel and Mozart who in my opinion, wrote absoute crap - with a few exceptions (like Mozart's Requiem)

[@mfjdv2020]

Peter Sellers was a brilliant man in his way, but definitely more than a trifle eccentric.

[@guysaltis1668]

Mairwen 99 Peter Sellars or Peter Sellers

[@duratetube]

you're right: same melody: good ear.

[@dan84trott]

Isn't it 'Batter my heart' (without the comma), i.e. 'my heart' is the object of 'batter', not a vocative?

[@FusionSummit]

At least that's my hypothesis.

[@KeithOtisEdwards]

This aria is superb - - the greatest written this century. Heartfelt. Gripping. Too bad the remainder of the opera is a dud. In Act III they spend about a half-hour singing about the weather. I don't blame Adams, I blame that fraud Peter Sellars. If Adams had lyrics that were like these throughout, the whole thing would've been great.

[@sapience4]

Best part of the Opera, though after Nixon in China I was disappointed with this offering by Adams. Dr. Atomic had it's poignant moments could have been so much more if it hadn't been such a hodge podge and if hadn't overstated its message.

[@mfjdv2020]

Could you please explain the meaning of the expression "Go figure" that you use. To me it sounds supremely bizarre and makes no sense whatsoever.

[@MarcusEMunya]

@Homoclassicus It was merely a joke my friend, an observation.

[@josh194]

This is so good it's hard to believe how ghastly the rest of the opera is. Perhaps if it hadn't put me to sleep last night my wallet wouldn't have been stolen.

[@CheekyFest]

ghastly music / production or ghastly story / history / truth?

[@FusionSummit]

Ok... why're you telling me? lol. Tell MmmVomit. :D

[@rm.n4848]

A150 brought me here! Only English language open university students will understand!

[@mfjdv2020]

I agree about Purcell, but I loathe Handel. However he was of course influenced by the time in which he was writing, which IMO must have been the dreariest period in musical history - with a very few exceptions. And this is strange, because it was a very turbulent period in European history so one would expect the music of the period to be exceptionally inspiring. But no.

[@floydcarbunkel4247]

This is where einstein and hitler. left off

[@USMCGuitarHero]

You must be new to KZbin... "Provocative" and "Insightful" are not exactly par for the course.

[@Achilles8472]

it would be far too convienient

[@Homoclassicus]

@goblinob No, I'm not. Next question.

[@FusionSummit]

Wait... this is NOT minimalist... in the LEAST. At the VERY least, it's strophic.

[@MuscleDaddyCMH]

Um , yeah. god these people make me tired with that nonsense about the "right" languages...And by the way - I hope everyone notices how much the prosody of this is like Purcell, but with the minimalist accompaniment.

[@ilixa13]

La lingua inglese è qualcosa che non dovrebbe ne anche il pensiero di toccare l'opera!

[@Forcesolidifyer]

i'm the first who disliked :D