Doctor Atomic

Opera Doctor Atomic by John Adams & Peter Sellars, programmed in Holland Festival 2007.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atom bomb, has become an almost mythological figure. His desire to transcend human limitations inspired him to carry out an experiment whose results still form a threat to humanity today – Oppenheimer was the best sub¬ject that composer John Adams could ever have hoped to find for his Doctor Atomic. Peter Sellars was responsible for the libretto, in which the impersonal and purely scientific attitudes of the characters are just as important as their personal crises. The story is based on official documents that were classified secret until only recently. Sellars also draws on poems from the Western liter¬ary heritage, the Bhagavad Gita and a traditional Tewa song, spicing the mix with Faustian elements.