Doctor Atomic

July 16, 1945, Los Alamos, USA. At 5:29 a.m., scientists led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer test the first atomic bomb in history. A huge fireball rises into the sky. For seconds, night turns to day. The test is considered a success and everyone knows: The world will be a different place from now on. Just three weeks later, the USA uses atomic bombs in the war against Japan. With Doctor Atomic, the American composer John Adams writes an opera about the last days before the first atomic explosion. It depicts a laboratory town in the middle of the desert, where scientists are working on a bomb that overwhelms them and yet makes them as powerful as gods. Can man do everything that is possible? With original quotes from Los Alamos and overwhelming music, John Adams creates a harrowing opera about the responsibility of science. Marco Štorman and his team look behind the façade of ruthless ambition and unbridled urge to research. They bring people to the stage who are torn between everyday life and fear, scruples and delusions of grandeur.