January 8-14, 2004

cover story

Fire in the Sky

Electric light orchestra: Miriam Seidel harnessed Nikola Tesla's ideas about energy for her first opera, Violet Fire, which deals with the inventor's life and work. Photo By: Mike Mergen

Physics, power and pigeons: Nikola Tesla gets his own opera.

by Lewis Whittington

Perhaps I was a little Premature, perhaps Too far ahead of time My tower The transmission of electrical energy without wires as a means of furthering peace.

Unexpected lyrics to open an opera, but they are part of the real life of physicist Nikola Tesla, forgotten energy wizard. He so inspired Miriam Seidel that she wrote her first libretto, Violet Fire.

"Tesla is not a typical scientist," says Seidel. "When I read about him, I knew this had to be an opera because there was something oversized and strange. It had to be a context where the story wouldn’t be bound to the conventions of realist narrative."

Tesla was a Croatian immigrant who left Europe in the 1880s because he wasn't taken seriously as a scientist. Stateside, he was such an innovator with his energy concepts that prominent scientists continued to exploit his experiments. Had he realized all of his dreams at the turn of the 20th century, he may have replaced Thomas Edison as America's most famous inventor.

He not only harnessed alternating currents (AC), he turned Niagara Falls into a model engine, devised the "World Wireless" prototype to the radio, delved into robotics and had J.P. Morgan underwrite his Tesla Tower, which he envisioned as a monolith of free-flowing energy. When Morgan found out about the free part, the tower was destroyed. Despite Mark Twain being his champion, Tesla ended up alone and living in obscurity in New York City, talking to pigeons in the park.

Seidel not only has the forgotten inventor singing like a bird, she has him singing to the birds. And since this is opera, the birds sing and dance for him. Seidel, an art and dance writer, worked for more than five years on the project and admits to being "obsessed" with Tesla. She asked Jon Gibson, a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, to write the score for the local Relâche Ensemble. "Jon had written the score to Relâche instrumentation," Seidel says. The score has a pulsing electro-acoustic soundscape that is lush, haunting and atmospheric.

Seidel sat down with Thaddeus Squire, artistic director of Relâche, to talk about the genesis of Violet Fire at Squire's office in the old Ironworks Gallery off Bainbridge Street.

"I knew there was nothing to be gained by literally telling his story," she says. "I tried to bring the strange elements of his life, so it's not at all a literal telling. I like to see it as poetic and dreamlike."

The project was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts in 2000. "We eventually spent time looking for a partner," Squire says, "and we went to the Prince Music Theater, American Opera Project and even the O'Neill Center came up, and finally a grant came through at Temple." Seidel adds, "We're very grateful to Temple."

Adding to the scope of this opera are flowing film projections designed by Sarah Drury and Jen Simmons, and still images that interact dynamically. There are five screens, including one large projection representing the Tesla Tower. Squire calls the staging a "truly multimedia endeavor. This involves a heavy video component, also an electronic soundscape element that is overlaid over the score, along with the acoustic score.

"Jon's style is very minimalist, in his own distinct language. But the association with Relâche and the downtown New York scene takes an attentiveness that all came together for us. It utilizes all of the colors of the group," Squire says.

Terry O'Reilly will direct Violet Fire's first run at Temple's Tomlinson Theater, Squire will conduct the eight Relâche musicians and John Douglas, director of Temple's opera program, will oversee the cast of 11 singers from the program, including tenor Kris Moody (Tesla) and soprano Julie Snyder (White Dove).

"[Tesla's] life felt mythic to me," says Seidel. "He denied himself a normal life in order to pursue being an inventor. He was almost monkish. His love came out for these pigeons. That to me felt almost like a fairy tale."

Violet Fire runs Feb. 13-14, 8 p.m., $10-$20, Temple University, Tomlinson Theater, 1301 W. Norris St., 215-204-1122.

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