Meredith Arwady, who is a 2000 Hope graduate, is a member of the cast of the New York Metropolitan Opera's production of "Doctor Atomic" being featured on local PBS station WGVU-TV35/WGVK-TV52 this month.

Meredith Arwady, who is a 2000 Hope graduate, is a member of the cast of the New York Metropolitan Opera's production of "Doctor Atomic" being featured on local PBS station WGVU-TV35/WGVK-TV52 this month.

The station will present "Independent Lens: Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic" on Friday, Dec. 19, and on Tuesday, Dec. 30, from 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m.

The production itself will be presented through "Great Performances at the Met" on Monday, Dec. 29, from 9 p.m. until midnight and on Monday, January 5 from midnight until 3 a.m.

Written by John Adams with libretto by Peter Sellars, the opera focuses on Los Alamos, N.M., in the period shortly before and including the testing of the first atomic bomb in July 1945.  The opera centers on Kitty Oppenheimer, wife of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.  Arwady portrays Kitty's maid, Pasqualita.

"Doctor Atomic" premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2005.  The Met presented it this fall, with many from the cast, including Arwady, subsequently performing as well with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Georgia.  Arwady had previously portrayed Pasqualita during the Lyric Opera of Chicago's presentation of the opera during the 2007-08 season.

Arwady has received international acclaim as an opera singer, and in 2004 was one of only three winners in the New York Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  She received the college's inaugural Young Alumni Award in 2007.