For “Doctor Atomic,” the previous collaboration between Mr. Adams and Mr. Sellars, which had its premiere here in 2005, Mr. Sellars also assembled a libretto from poetry, journals and original documents. The rugged miners sing words taken from actual miners’ songs, set to rhythmically fractured music, enlivened with accordion and cow bells. But Ramón’s words mostly come from the Gold Rush diary of a South American journalist, and Josefa’s from an Argentine poet. It’s a tour de force moment for Mr. Tines and, in a way, for Mr. Adams. Yet it comes across like an interpolated concert aria, suggesting both the strengths and shortcomings of this ambitious new opera.

Source: New York Times December 01, 2017 19:07 UTC