Robert Oppelt on John Adams

Robert Oppelt, who serves as Principal Bass of the National Symphony, just put out a new article on his excellent website about the bass solo in John Adams’ latest opera Dr. Atomic.  This work was commissioned and premiered by the Lyric Opera of Chicago (I’ve even got a photo of the Lyric Opera bass section perched under the massive clock that was part of the set for this work).

Robert gives his fingerings for this tricky solo, as well as describing the context in which it occurs. Surely this will become part of the double bass audition repertoire in years to come: 

http://www.robertoppelt.com/page19.html