As the Metropolitan Opera’s final dress rehearsal for Doctor Atomic got underway, the hall filled with high school and college students from across New York. The special event gave over one thousand future Met-goers—many of them science majors— a chance to experience opera and to consider the connections between science and art from a fresh angle.

For some it was a first-time experience. For others the medium was more familiar territory, but John Adams’s modern take on the art would be new. For all, it was an unforgettable experience.

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“Who would have thought—an opera about the atomic bomb?”

“I’ve been dying to see this since it’s premiere in San Francisco.”

“I’m so glad John Adams is finally at the Met!”

Such was the swirl of commentary and anticipation as the house lights dimmed on the Metropolitan Opera’s final dress rehearsal today for Doctor Atomic. Straggling audience members found their seats. A bank of computer screens in rows M and N glowed. Leo Warner of Fifty Nine Productions, who with Mark Grimmer designed the projections for the production, murmured into his headset. And Doctor Atomic got underway.

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“Hey, look at that,” said Manhattan Project veteran Benjamin Bederson. “Members of the Special Engineering Detachment.”

Bederson made his way through the tables and chairs of the Met’s private cafeteria towards a groups of Doctor Atomic chorus singers. The men were dressed in their costumes of military uniforms, laughing over lunchtime sandwiches.

“Hi, I thought I’d introduce myself,” Bederson said to the table. Everyone looked up. “I’m Benjamin Bederson. I was at Los Alamos.”

“Wow,” one of the singers said. “Really?”

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