John Adams's Doctor Atomic is given the first of six summer performances at the Santa Fe Opera, conducted by Matthew Aucoin, on Saturday. The production, directed by librettist Peter Sellars and starring Ryan McKinny as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Julia Bullock as Kitty Oppenheimer, continues through August 16. For the libretto, Sellars drew from original sources to explore the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico in July 1945. To contextualize the performances, Santa Fe Opera is presenting a number of area events: a conversation with Sellars and former US Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest J. Moniz last weekend; a film screening about the making of the opera last night; concerts of related works by Adams and others this Sunday; and upcoming guided visits to Los Alamos.

Bullock reprises a role she performs on the first recording of Doctor Atomic, which Nonesuch just released. On the album, Adams conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, and a cast led by Gerald Finley and Bullock. “A magnificent accomplishment,” exclaimed the Los Angeles Times of the opera. "It contains music of unearthly splendor."

A few states due northwest, Adams’s Scheherazade.2 is performed by violinist Leila Josewicz and the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra, led by Markus Stenz, in Teton Village, Wyoming, tonight and Saturday, for Grand Teton Music Festival. Nonesuch released the first recording of Scheherazade.2 in 2016, with Josewicz and the St. Louis Symphony. NPR says: “The fierceness and vulnerability Leila Josefowicz expresses contributes to an award-caliber performance.”

On the other end of the country, in New York City, Available Light, a collaboration among Adams, choreographer Lucinda Childs, and architect Frank Gehry, is performed by Lucinda Childs Dance Company at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall tonight as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival.

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David Byrne has brought his American Utopia world tour to Spain, performing at Kobetamendi in Bilbao tonight, as part of Bilbao BBK Live Festival, and Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona on Saturday, as part of Cruilla Barcelona. “Pure and absolutely wonderful,” exclaims El País music critic Fernando Neira reviewing Tuesday’s set at Noches del Botánico in Madrid. “This American Utopia tour exceeds everything that could be anticipated in advance … A colossal party … Every day is a miracle with David Byrne.”

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Rhiannon Giddens performs music from her recent album, Freedom Highway, and more at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming, on Saturday, for Targhee Fest.

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Pianist Tigran Hamasyan is in Italy this weekend, bringing music from his recently released EP, For Gyumri, and 2017 album, An Ancient Observer, to Belvedere di Villa Rufolo in Ravello on Sunday, as part of Ravello Festival. NPR writes: “As a pianist and composer, [Hamasyan] draws inspiration from jazz, folkloric and classical sources, in ways that feel both hypermodern and practically ageless.”

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Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express perform songs from their 2015 album, Junun, continuing their North American tour as special guests of Radiohead, with the last of four sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City, tonight and Saturday. You can watch the band’s performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this week here.

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Kronos Quartet plays a free show at Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn on Saturday, as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! summer concert series. The group plays a solo set, including works by John Coltrane, George Gershwin, and more, and is then joined by Malian ensemble Trio Da Kali for a set together.

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Brad Mehldau and his trio—Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums—continue their European tour in support of their new album, Seymour Reads the Constitution!, with festival sets at Finca El Portón in Málaga, Spain, tonight, for Porton del Jazz, Posto Unico in Ostuni, Italy, on Saturday, for PianoOstuni Festival, and Agrilatina in Latina, Italy, on Sunday, for Maggio Sermonetano.

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Natalie Merchant begins her sold-out A Summer Evening With... tour of intimate and historic venues across the UK with a performance at Guildhall in St Ives tonight and Phoenix in Exeter on Sunday.

“Time changes everything and everyone, and it changes our perception of the past,” Merchant tells the Yorkshire Evening Post in an interview ahead of the tour. “I feel like I’ve been several different women in the intervening years since I started writing and recording these songs.” You can read what else she had to say here.

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Lake Street Dive plays two sold-out shows at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta tonight and Saturday. The band recently helped closed out the season of public radio’s Live From Here with Chris Thile, performing songs from its new album, Free Yourself Up, live at Tanglewood. You can watch those performances, and some from fellow musical guests Punch Brothers, here.

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Punch Brothers, whose new album, All Ashore, is out next week, kicked off an extensive US summer tour yesterday, continuing with concerts at Pigsah Brewing Co. in Black Mountain, North Carolina, tonight, and The Tabernacle in Atlanta on Saturday, and a set at Forecastle Festival in Louisville on Sunday. BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum, spinning the album track “It’s All Part of the Plan,” describes it as “unbelievably beautiful … musicianship at its very finest.”

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman continues his tour of Europe as special guest of the Billy Hart Quartet with sets at Santa Catarina Park in Funchal, Portugal, tonight, as part of Funchal Jazz Festival, and Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands on Sunday, as part of North Sea Jazz Festival.