Butler Opera Center: Downwind

Music by Michael Robert Smith

Libretto by Demian Chavez Galvan

Madison Jackson, director | Douglas Kinney Frost, conductor

Sung in English with supertitles.

On July 16, 1945, New Mexicans awoke to Trinity, the world’s first nuclear test. Manhattan Project leaders did not inform residents, despite tens of thousands living nearby. In the years that followed, people in the surrounding areas began to report serious health issues. These individuals would be known as “Downwinders.” Downwind is the story of these people. 

This opera is a world premiere, written by students Michael Smith and Demian Galvan, who traveled to New Mexico to help bring this story to life. Smith writes, “While the family in our opera is fictional, the reality that they face is not.”