February 12-18, 2004

artpicks

Violet Fire

Opera

Induction motors, fluorescent lights, AC power, robots, wireless radio: Nikola Tesla went beyond mere "invention" into creation, from movement into being. Tesla made his mark without rubber-stamping everything he did. Instead, like the coil named after him, everything was smoke and mirrors and poof, zap, bang -- but with a poetic dramatism that made him as eerily enigmatic as it made him truculently theatrical. Librettist Miriam Seidel has made loving the alien -- from doe-eyed childhood to the dread contemplation of old age -- easier with Violet Fire. It's a post-Robert Wilson multimedia opera starring the contributions of composer Jon Gibson (of Philip Glass fame) as played by the Relâche Ensemble; director Terry O'Reilly (of Mabou Mines infamy); and a host of Temple U electro-lites like media designers Sarah Drury and Jen Simmons, set designers Dan Boylen and Martin Dallago and singers from the Temple Opera Department. With innovative "active mic" techniques that allow interactive charges between songs and images, it'll be as if Tesla himself -- a conductor of blue bolts of lightning -- was holding the baton, guiding the Fire.

Violet Fire, Fri.-Sat., Feb. 13-14, 8 p.m., $10-$20, Temple University's Tomlinson Theater, 1301 W. Norris St., 215-204-1122. Performance theorist Arthur Sabatini will lead a post-performance discussion after the Friday night performance. Author Andrei Codrescu will speak at 7 p.m., before the Saturday night performance.

—A.D. Amorosi

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