Doctor Atomic Music by John Adams Libretto by Alice Goodman

(U.S. Opera Home Page)

On December 12, 2002, the San Francisco Opera announced that it had commissioned Adams to compose a new opera. The piece, tentatively titled Doctor Atomic, is currently scheduled to premiere in September of 2005, and will then play at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, who are co-producing.

As with Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, Alice Goodman will write the libretto and Peter Sellars will direct.

The opera is reportedly about J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb, and his experiences during and after the war. Adams has said that he plans to write "some science fiction music" as part of the score.