July 13 -14, 2018
Tech and the West is a two-year initiative presented as part of the recent world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and the 2018 production of Doctor Atomic. Continuing the Opera’s commitment to engaging community and broadening the experience and understanding of opera, Tech and the West uses the themes of these productions as the baseline for an intellectual exploration through exhibits, concerts, and symposia.
Many minds will come together for Tech and the West to facilitate and participate in discussions – composers, scientists, designers, directors, historians, and lecturers, among others. Related Events will explore how and if these two operas of biographically-inspired fiction contribute to the historical truth. Participants will also analyze the similar nature of Steve Jobs and Robert Oppenheimer: how these two monumental influencers wanted control of their worlds and creations yet also desired a greater understanding of the world around them.
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. Santa Fe, NM 87501
Presenter: Richard Rhodes
Robert Oppenheimer, the charismatic first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, has become an almost mythical embodiment of the World War II Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs. The Sellars-Adams opera Doctor Atomic is one manifestation of the phenomenon. Who was this man? What about him has led to such mythification? Did he, his work, his character support such a burden of history? Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and three other volumes of nuclear history, will explore these questions in a Saturday morning lecture.
New Mexico History Museum 113 Lincoln Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501
Presenter: Dr. James Nolan In this lecture, sociologist James L. Nolan, Jr. will discuss the unusual journey of his grandfather, Dr. James F. Nolan, a radiologist and obstetric gynecologist who was on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Among other roles, Nolan ran the base hospital at Los Alamos and escorted the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” from Los Alamos to Tinian Island, where it was assembled and put aboard the Enola Gay for its fateful flight to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. This talk will tell the intriguing story of an individual who participated in key historical events associated with the dawn of the nuclear age.
James L. Nolan, Jr. is a professor of sociology at Williams College. His areas of interest are comparative law, law and society, technology and social change, and historical and comparative sociology. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia. He is currently working on a book titled “Delivering Little Boy.”
Moderator: Theresa Strottman Panelists: Dr. James F. Nolan
Dr. Hugh Gusterson Some of the most important physicists of the twentieth century worked on the Manhattan Project. After the end of World War II they split between those who saw in nuclear weapons a pathway to peace ("a peril but also a great hope" in Oppenheimer’s words) and those who prophesied doom. How are we to understand this debate in the second nuclear age?"
Tickets available at:
https://www.santafeopera.org/discover/symposium/tech-and-the-west
Seating is limited-Bottled water only please.
