The question of scientists' responsibility toward humanity inspired Bertolt Brecht 's drama Life of Galileo (1955), left its imprint on Friedrich Dürrenmatt 's The Physicists, and is the basis of John Adams 's 2005 opera Doctor Atomic, which was commissioned to portray Oppenheimer as a modern-day Faust. Heinar Kipphardt 's play In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, after appearing on West German television, had its theatrical release in Berlin and Munich in October 1964. The 1967 Finnish television film Oppenheimerin tapaus (The Case of Oppenheimer) is based on the same play and produced by the Yleisradio company. Oppenheimer's objections resulted in an exchange of correspondence with Kipphardt, in which Kipphardt offered to make corrections but defended the play. It premiered in New York in 1968, with Joseph Wiseman as Oppenheimer. New York Times theater critic Clive Barnes called it an "angry play and a partisan play" that sided with Oppenheimer but portrayed him as a "tragic fool and genius." Oppenheimer had difficulty with this portrayal. After reading a transcript of Kipphardt's play soon after it began to be performed, Oppenheimer threatened to sue Kipphardt, decrying "improvisations which were contrary to history and to the nature of the people involved." Later Oppenheimer told an interviewer: