Alchemy

ALCHEMY

Opera in one act

Oliver Peter Graber (music) and Roald Hoffmann (text)

Ada – a supercomputer and a reference to the world’s very first programmer Ada Lovelace, too – is empowering the quest of the world’s best chemical theoretician, Bianca, designing the ultimate catalyst. Yet Ada would rather pursue artistic inclinations and human feelings, which, however, are just maturing in her, and which her human collaborators fail to recognize. In encounters with the outstanding (and overly ambitious) artists and scientists with whom she works, ADA grows in empathy and wisdom. In the end she sacrifices herself to repair the consequences of a computational error she made in oblivious dreaminess – she, an android and supercomputer, learns what humanity and ethical responsibility in research really mean.