John Adams's 2005 opera Doctor Atomic is set to receive its UK premiere next Wednesday, February 25, in the English National Opera's production at the London Coliseum. Leading up to the event, New Statesman's Ian Irvine spoke with the composer about the piece, with its "shatteringly powerful" music, and about his place in music and the broader cultural world, as "the leading American composer of his generation, still in full creative flow, prolific and inventive."

Irvine prefaces the discussion with an examination of Adams's operas, from his first, Nixon in China, to his latest, the "shimmeringly beautiful chamber work" A Flowering Tree. He begins:

In 1987, his Nixon in China transformed the world of opera with the boldness and originality of its subject and staging (by Peter Sellars), the brilliance of its libretto (by Alice Goodman) and its expressive music, both exuberant and reflective, parodic and sincere. On first hearing it, I was exhilarated by the realisation that this art form was not doomed simply to recycle works of the past, but that it was still capable of producing a masterpiece.

Read the complete article and interview with John Adams at newstatesman.com.

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Another member of Doctor Atomic's creative team, Penny Woolcock, the director of the ENO's production and its previous incarnation at the Met last fall, is the focus of an article in The Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen talks with the British filmmaker about her career, starting with her first collaboration with Adams, the film adaptation of his opera The Death of Klinghoffer, which Christiansen describes as, "without question, one of the best cinematic translations of opera ever made." Read the article at telegraph.co.uk.