Opera Bites: Met Live in HD's 'Dr. Atomic' explores bomb's development

On Saturday, the high-definition broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera will be John Adams' Dr. Atomic. The performance will begin at noon at the Town Plaza Cinema. The encore broadcast will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 19.

The opera tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer, the mastermind of the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. The libretto explores what happened during the development and testing of the bomb and also the reaction of the various people involved when the bomb was dropped on Japan toward the end of World War II.

There is also a love story in the opera — that of Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty. In the second scene of the opera they are seen reading together in bed. This is one of the more lyrical moments of the opera.

Oppenheimer was a scientist, but he was also somewhat of a mystic and taught himself Sanskrit. He wanted to be able to read poetry in that language.

Oppenheimer's tragedy was that he developed the bomb and then had to live to see the consequences of that act. It must have been a crushing burden.

There is little music in the final minutes of "Dr. Atomic" — an electronic soundscape plays crowd noises; a baby's distress is heard and then a Japanese woman speaking.

This is a grim story written by the foremost American composer of opera; I have only heard a tiny part of it so I really don't know how the whole piece sounds.

If opera is about "big events," then this work surely qualifies by telling the story of one of the most horrendous inventions in the history of mankind.

Barb Herbert of Cape Girardeau is an opera lover and host of Southeast Public Radio's "Sunday Night at the Opera."