Doctor Atomic Opera
So, I spent the evening catching up on my Scientific American Podcasts, while conducting other business. One of the episodes was very interesting in that it highlighted interviews from many of the prominent figures in The Manhattan Project. In addition to the interviews, it was noted that an opera has been produced to tell the troubling story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Below is the trailer of the opera entitled “Doctor Atomic“:
Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary minimalist American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb (the “Trinity” test) was being prepared. A documentary was made about the creation of the opera, titled Wonders Are Many(2007).
