DVD - Glass: Perfect American, Adams: Doctor Atomic, Bernstein: Trouble in Tahit

This special set brings together three of America’s most lauded contemporary operas: John Adams’ 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 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’ Walt Disney – unite these three very different works which collectively reflect the astonishing variety of style and form that characterises 20th-century opera.

Running time: 426 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic

Subtitles: EN/FR/D/ES/IT/NE/JP/KO

Territory Exclusions: USA & Canada

Artists

Gerald Finley (J. Robert Oppenheimer), Jessica Rivera (Kitty Oppenheimer), Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves), Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller), James Maddalena (Jack Hubbard), Thomas Glenn (Robert Wilson), Jay Hunter Morris (Captain James Nolan), Ellen Rabiner (Pasqualita), Stephanie Novacek (Dinah), Karl Daymond (Sam), Tom Randle (Gardener), Toby Stafford-Allen (Milkman), Mary Hegarty (Female), 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)

Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera & Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, The Improbable Skills Ensemble & Orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real, Lawrence Renes (musical director) & Peter Sellars (stage director), Paul Daniel (conductor) & Tom Cairns (director), Dennis Russell Davies (conductor) & Phelim McDermott (director)