Doctor Atomic

Sono sempre stato intrigato dalla figura di J. Robert Oppenheimer, l'inventore dell'atomica. Colto, snob, al di sopra di tutti e di tutto.

"Doctor Atomic", a lui dedicata, è l'ultima opera di John Adams (fece Nixon in China e, più recentemente, The Death of Klinghoffer).

"Like its forerunners, "Doctor Atomic" deals with what the critic Michael Steinberg has called "brief but emblematic events in recent history."[...]

[...]"To me, the Los Alamos story and the bomb in particular is the ultimate American myth," Mr. Adams said. "It constellates so many of the defining themes of our American consciousness. Industry and invention leading to a 'triumph' of science over nature; the presumption of military dominance on behalf of what we perceive as the 'right' values; the newfound power to bring about annihilation of life; and the moral and ethical conundrums that the possession of such an instrument of destruction force upon us."

The Opera That Chooses the Nuclear Option, di Matthew Gurewithsch, The New York Times, 25 settembre 2005.