A 2014 French production of John Adams and Peter Sellars' opera Doctor Atomic at the Opéra national du Rhin.
Doctor Atomic is John Adam's portrait of the inventor of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, interpreted by Dietrich Henschel in this production. Thanks to Oppenheimer, the world entered a new age: the nuclear era. Terrified by her husband's project, Kitty Oppenheimer (Anna Grevelius) is left alone and reflects on the contradictions of peace, war, and love. An opera treating both contemporary and timeless issues, Doctor Atomic warns of the fall of the modern world, with love stories and broken hearts woven in. Peter Sellars libretto borrows texts from poets like Charles Baudelaire, John Donne, and Muriel Rukeyser.
It was premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2005. This French production by the Opéra national du Rhin opened its 2013-2014 season and included the participation of the Chœurs de l'OnR, Chœurs de l'OSM, the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse and many talented singers.
Picture: © A. Kaiser.
French premiere – New production.