On Friday as I was driving on my little roadtrip, I listened to John Adams's opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer, Doctor Atomic, on XM Vox. It was musically interesting but difficult. The libretto, which used many actual writings of the Manhattan Project principals, had some neat lines, including this one, which still holds true today: "Anyone could have found Los Alamos just by following the trail of beer cans from Santa Fe."
When I went into the store yesterday morning, I found a note from one of the staffers. A customer from the National Institutes of Health was looking for the libretto for Doctor Atomic, because she was going to see the opera at the Met in October. I couldn't find a libretto online, so I suggested she check at the Met's gift shop.
But wait! There's more. That afternoon my friend Candace, a voice teacher and good friend to the store, came in and said, "I have someone I want you to meet." She introduced me to Sasha Cooke, who will be singing Kitty Oppenheimer in the Met's production of Doctor Atomic this fall! Sasha was browsing in our atomic history section for books that mention Kitty. She had already read American Prometheus but hadn't read 109 East Palace. I gave her our good-singer's discount and asked her to sign my daily planner. Pretty cool, eh?
2 comments:
Talk about a plate of shrimp!
I hope Sasha Cooke enjoys portraying Kitty Oppenheimer. Does she get to throw things at Oppie?
You meet some interesting people!
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