NEW YORK

John Adams's opera, in a new production at the Met, is good but not great, says Robert Hilferty 

It's June 1945. Physicist Robert Oppenheimer is about to test the first nuclear weapon, which he's brought into existence. He's also on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

This is the compelling subject of John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic, which premiered in San Francisco in 2005 directed by its librettist, Peter Sellars, who ingeniously assembled the libretto from declassified documents, scientific reports, letters and poetry - a true "docudrama". The Met Opera's new production, directed by Penny Woolcock, opened on October 13 and will eventually go to ENO.

The periodic table is the first thing we see in Julian Crouch's design, as we hear electronic sounds and old radio songs interrupted by harrowing chords. Shards of metal rise into mid-air in a kind of freeze-frame of an explosion. Three levels of cubicles feature photos of scientists involved in the project.

Semi-mutinous young scientist Robert Wilson (tenor Thomas Glenn) confronts Oppenheimer (baritone Gerald Finley) about dropping the bomb on Japanese civilians. The latter snaps back that politics is Washington business, noting that "the visual effect" will be "tremendous"; he's more worried his bomb might be a "dud".

Comic relief comes when General Groves (bass-baritone Eric Owens) threatens meteorologist Frank Hubbard (baritone Earle Patriarco) with imprisonment if he doesn't offer a more agreeable weather report. But tension runs high, and you hear it in Adams's jagged brass-and-timpani rhythms.

After a tender bedroom scene with his wife, Kitty (mezzo Sasha Cooke), Oppenheimer sings Donne's "Batter My Heart", perplexed by the questionable act he's about to commit. Act 2 brings a Naturerespecting feminine perspective with Kitty and her Native American maid Pasqualita (alto Meredith Arwady), a kind of Cassandra of the American Southwest who's not, however, fleshed out into a role that's more meaningful

Unfortunately, the momentum is hobbled by this counter-cosmology with its frequent lapses into precious poetry. When Oppenheimer sings "It is Eternity that reigns now", you feel it. Conductor Alan Gilbert, who balances and draws out the score's subtle layers superbly, takes his time with the tempi, adding 15 minutes to the duration of the recently released DVD of Sellars's production.

And Adams's score is formidable – with its Varèse-like swatches, post-minimalist textures and sky-reaching lyricism. The great rumbling at the end as the bomb explodes is unprecedented for the Met. But I'm still not convinced Doctor Atomic is great.