It's too late to see this production, anyway! I only found out about it last week, otherwise I might have gone to see it.

Rather than a scientific subject being the problem, I wonder whether John Adams not being the right compose for any opera is the problem? But then who writes music like Rossini or Mozart nowadays? If the music had more popular appeal, at some stage it would no longer be opera - high culture - but musical theatre. This applies equally to operas on any subject, though. Maybe a better title for the post would be "Do high art and scientists mix?"