Opera

The only theme more operatic than the atomic bomb’s effect on the lives of millions of people is the tragedy the atomic bomb caused in the lives of a few people. John Coolidge Adams’ new opera, Doctor Atomic, is a character study that focuses on the last few days at Los Alamos prior to the test payload’s detonation.

Butler bibliographic assistant and part-time student by day, Theo van Joolen is a Cossack soldier at the Metropolitan Opera by night.

Though he notoriously falls from glory at the end of Act 5, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow shall Macbeth live on, on stage and in film and, curiously enough, in opera.