I didn't get a chance to attend the premiere of the John Adams-Peter Sellars opera "Doctor Atomic," but I'll be damned if Alex Ross hasn't made me feel guilty about it. (I kid.) My point, of course, is that the grand, poetic, and insanely thorough music-historical piece Ross has about the making of the art work in this week's print edition of the New Yorker isn't his only gift to anyone interested in history, harmony, science, or politics. Supplementary materials -- from a contemplative photoblog from his California travels to links that point to other pertinent critical assesments of the piece -- are currently live on The Rest Is Noise. Sadly, I, too, can't provide much of my folder of Adams writings online -- an interview about his 9/11 paean from the NY Sun and an essay on my passion for his music from Symphony magazine only exist in print form, to say nothing of all the reviews. But if you've actually gotten through all the (far more pertinent and profound) Atomic stuff and want to read a three-year-old Slate piece on why the NY Phil asked him to commemorate 9/11 back in '02, here ya go.
