CROATIA: Electro-Shoes Generate A Buzz
12 Feb 2004
Source: just-style.com

Electro-shoes with built-in generators that produce enough power run a laptop computer, or keep a person warm on a cold day are to go into mass production.

The "e-man" shoes, invented and built by a Croatian entrepreneur, have drawn the attention of the US military according to Croatian daily Vecernji List, and talks with other buyers are said to be at an advanced stage.

The shoes are designed to generate electricity when a person walks and then transfer that power to special clothing which converts it into heat.

http://www.just-style.com/news_detail.asp?art=32967

This is Ivica Saric's invention as many times mentioned on CROWN.

Ivicu Saric
Cosmopolitan Exchange Corp.
P. O. Box 320333
Franklin, WI 53132 USA
E-Adresa; coxco@execpc.com

Pavelich - Hockey Movie Miracles

The movie is based on the Olympic hockey win over the Soviets. What is not known is that Pavelich set up the puck that won the game.

Adam S. Eterovich


PAVELICH, MARK Hockey Olympic Gold Medal
The "Miracle on Ice" still ranks among the nation's greatest sporting moments and, in many ways, Pavelich was symbolic of the American team. The conversation quickly moves to that night in Lake Placid, N.Y., against the Soviet Union, more than 20 years ago, when he collected the puck along the boards and slid it in front of the net. That puck ended up on the stick of teammate Mike Eruzione, who scored to give the U.S. squad an upset over the USSR on the way to a gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Pavelich was small for the game, never growing taller than 5 feet 8, but all those childhood days on outdoor rinks molded him into a clever skater and stickhandler. "A throwback player who could control the puck like he had it on a string," says Baker, who grew up nearby in Grand Rapids. He was born in nearby Eveleth, in rugged country known as the Iron Range, where boys learn to hunt and fish from an early age. The town claims to have the world's largest hockey stick at 107 feet long, so they also learn to play. In the late 1970s, those skills made Pavelich one of the greatest players in the history of the University of Minnesota Duluth. They subsequently earned him a spot on the Olympic team. He earned respect with his work ethic and a knack for passing the puck. Former goaltender Jim Craig recalls him as "an honest man, just a wonderful guy to be around." Little was expected of the Americans that winter, their coach reportedly telling them before the Olympics it would take some luck to win a bronze. But after an opening tie against Sweden, they rolled to four consecutive victories against the likes of Norway and Romania to reach the medal round against the powerhouse Soviets. Pavelich played an essential, supporting role that night, assisting on two of the four goals. Two days later, the U.S. defeated Finland to win the gold medal, and Pavelich wound up with six assists in the seven Lake Placid games. The players became overnight heroes, appearing on television, visiting the White House, attending promotional events across the nation. "A lot of commotion," Pavelich says. "I tried to avoid it as much as possible." Then he signed with the New York Rangers and moved to Manhattan. The team photo shows a young man with shaggy hair and heavy features, his lips pressed together in only the faintest semblance of a smile. He claims to have enjoyed his time in New York, taking in the sights of the city, but teammates recall he wasn't much for the nightlife. On the ice, Pavelich scored 76 points as a rookie—still a team record—and led the Rangers the following season with 37 goals, five of them in a memorable game against the Hartford Whalers. Though such numbers surely established him in the league, he retired after only five seasons because of differences with a new coach. There would be flickers of comebacks, a dozen or so games with the North Stars and San Jose Sharks, but his career was basically over. Wharton, David. “Mark Pavelich Hockey Olympic Star.” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2002.

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce, in conjunction with the Croatian
Society at Imperial College London, a major CSYPN
event on Thursday, 26th February.

We are delighted that Robin Harris, author of the acclaimed
'Dubrovnik: A History' will be giving a talk to us about the
"Pearl of the Adriatic", followed by a Q&A session.

This will be one of the most important Croatian events in
London this year. Robin Harris is one of Croatia's
greatest friends. He was one of Margaret Thatcher's closest
policy advisers and informed her on Croat matters.

We expect you all to come to this event, and to bring
friends - especially your British ones!

The event is free. It will begin at 7.00pm. Doors open
at 6.45. Full address and directions below.

Greatly discounted copies of 'Dubrovnik - A History'
will be available at the event for the price of Ł15 - down
from Ł25. You will also have an opportunity to chat to
Mr Harris and get you copy signed.

Please send us your name and those of your guests to
dubrovnik@csypn.org.uk  by Sunday, 22nd February.
Furthermore, if you wish to secure your copy of the
book, let us know in your email.

We expect to see you all there!

CSYPN Committee


Praise for 'Dubrovnik: A History':
* "... wonderful book, which opens up an interesting
corner of
Mediterranean history for the English reader."
- Norman Stone, The Daily Telegraph

* "We are reminded just how remarkable Dubrovnik was
and is by Robin Harris's formidably learned, fluently written
and lavishly illustrated Dubrovnik: A History."
- Brendan Simms, The Daily Telegraph


About Robin Harris:

Robin Harris studied at Oxford University, where he
won the Gibbs Prize and was awarded a D.Phil in modern
history. He went on to work in various political and governmental
capacities in the 1970s and 1980s. Now a journalist, he focuses
mainly on foreign affairs and politics, writing extensively on
the Balkans and in particular Croatia and Bosnia. His publications
include 'Valois Guyenne: A Study of Politics, Government and
Society in Late Medieval France' and 'Diplomacy and Power in the
Great Age of Dubrovnik' in 'Diplomacy of the Republic of Dubrovnik'.

-----
When: Thursday, 26 February 2004, 6.45pm for a talk at
7.00pm
Where: Clore Theatre,
180 Queen's Gate,
Imperial College London
SW7 2AZ
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=526449&Y=179347&A=Y&Z=1
RSVP: by Sunday, 22nd February 2004 to
dubrovnik@csypn.org.uk
Price: FREE
Notes: Bring as many friends as possible

Live webcast of Carnival of Rijeka on the Net

Prijenos uzivo Rijeckog Karnevala na Internetu

http://www.ri-karneval.com.hr/english/prikaz.asp?txt_id=96

For the eighth year in the row, MULTILINK will produce live webcast of International Carnival in Rijeka. This way, Rijeka Carnival will remain the only carnival in the world shown live on the Internet, enabling many visitors to feel the grand carnival atmosphere although they are far away from Rijeka and Korzo.

This year's Carnival webcast will be produced in standard streaming formats (Real and Windows Media). It will be produced in cooperation with KanalRi TV station that will provide video source.

RealOne technology allows you to see the list of all carnival groups, and a description of the group currently passing in front of central stage on Korzo, simultaneously with the video stream.. Other information about the parade and Carnival can be found at any time on Carnival web site in separate browser window. It is also possible to listen the program of Radio Rijeka.

Live webcast of International carnival parade on February 22, 2004, will be shown on Carnival web sitewww.ri-karneval.com.hr . For all visitors from other time zones, as well as those that cannot be on Korzo on Sunday, footage of parades will be available in various formats and quality (for different transfer rates). Footage of the Children's carnival parade can also be found on Carnival web site.

As in previous years, we are expecting many webcast visitors from all around the world, considering trends from previous years.

Other information about the Carnival can be found on Carnival web site. Through the Content Management System that powers the Carnival site, employees of Tourist Association of the City of Rijeka can daily updates the content themselves.

We invite you to participate, with the mask or without it, in the largest and wildest Carnival!

http://www.ri-karneval.com.hr/prikaz.asp?txt_id=28

I ove godine, osmi put zaredom, MULTILINK će izvesti izravni prijenos Međunarodnog riječkog karnevala putem Interneta. Time će Karneval i nadalje biti jedini svjetski karneval koji se prenosi uživo na Internet i omogućuje mnogima da osjete veličanstvenu karnevalsku atmosferu daleko od riječkog Korza.

Ovogodišnji webcast Karnevala biti će izveden standardnim streaming formatima (Real i Widows Media). Prijenos ćemo izvesti u suradnji sa TV kućom Kanal Ri od koje ćemo preuzeti video signal.

Uz praćenje video prikaza, koji omogućuje Real One player tehnologija, istovremeno se može pratiti i popis grupa koje trenutno prolaze pored glavne pozornice na Korzu. Ostale informacije vezane uz povorku i Karneval, u svakom trenutku mogu se pronaći na web stranicama Karnevala u zasebnom prozoru preglednika.  Moguće je također pratiti i program Radio Rijeke.

Prijenos Međunarodne povorke 22. veljače 2004. godine, moći će se pratiti na web stranicama Karnevala (www.ri-karneval.com.hr). Za sve posjetitelje iz drugih vremenskih zona kao i one koji nisu mogli biti na Riječkom Korzu u nedjelju, osigurat će se snimke povorki u različitim formatima i kvalitetama (za različite brzine prijenosa). Snimke Dječje karnevalske povorke također se mogu pronaći na web stranicama Karnevala.

Kao i svake godine, očekujemo dobru posjećenost prijenosa, i to iz različitih zemalja svijeta, s obzirom na zabilježene trendove prijenosa prethodnih godina.

Djelatnicima Turističke zajednice Grada Rijeke omogućili smo da ove godine samostalno održavaju sav sadržaj na webu pomoću CMS rješenja (Content Management System), stoga se sve ostale dnevno osvježene informacije o Karnevalu mogu pronaći na njegovim web stranicama.

Sudjelujte s maskom ili bez nje na najvećem i najluđem Karnevalu!

Postovani g. Bach,

U attachmentu Vam saljem tekstove na hrvatskom i engleskom, za koje bih Vas zamolila da objavite na www.croatianworld.net .
Unaprijed zahvaljujem na pomoci.

Srdacan pozdrav,

Ivana Siminiati
Sales & Marketing Associate

MULTILINK d.o.o.
Rijeka, Wenzelova 2/I
T/F +385 51 321 111, 321 003
www.multilink.hr

Editor's note:

Multilink je hrvatska kompanija koja je obavila i obavlja pionirski posao u produbljavanju i edukaciji mogucnosti Interneta. Pridruzite nam se u gledanju ovog jedinstvenog karnevala.

Multilink is a Croatian company that pioneered new Internet technology and education of it. Join us in watching this unique Carnival.

Nenad Bach

Training for Croatian journalists on health care and health care policy

-- ANNOUNCEMENT OF TRAINING FOR JOURNALISTS

Media Coverage of Health Issues in the Balkans

Applications are being accepted from reporters and editors in Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo for a two-day
training workshop in Sarajevo on 2-3 April, 2004 focusing on media
coverage of health issues in Balkan countries. Regional and
international experts will conduct training sessions aimed at educating
journalists on a wide variety of topics in health care and health
policy, with the goal of helping them improve their coverage of critical
public health issues. Print, online and radio/TV journalists are welcome
to apply.

All travel, accommodation and meal costs for participants will be paid.
This conference is organized by Transitions Online (TOL), a non-profit
media development organization and online news magazine, and funded by
the Swedish International Development Agency and the Open Society
Institute's Mental Disabilities Awareness Program. To apply, please
email a brief letter of interest and your CV to training@tol.cz  by
Friday, 12 March. (Please write “Balkan health” in the subject line.)

10.000 Croatian Surnames in Argentina


Many times I was asked -and I asked myself- how many Croatians there are (or rather are we) in Argentina. The answers are usually very varied, indicating that nobody really knows.

So I decided to do something about it, that is to count them!

Well, ... almost. What I did is to identify the Argentine citizens with Croatian last names. The task is not easy, and one has to be aware of the many sources of errors. Errors remain, but anyway, atwww.studiacroatica.com/ape/ape.htm  you can see a list of 10.000 Croatian surnames in Argentina, including their frequencies. All together there are some 110.000 holders of Croatian last names, born up to 1983 (from 1979 on the data is incomplete), which means that today we are some 40.000 more. These numbers do not include Croatian descendants who do not have a Croatian last name.

Comments are welcome. A text on how was done the work, -its scope, difficulties and sources of errors- will be forwarded upon request.

Joza Vrljicak
Buenos Aires
joza@velocom.com.ar

10000 apellidos croatas en Argentina

Muchas veces me preguntaron -y yo mismo pregunté- cuantos croatas hay en Argentina. Las respuestas son muy variadas, indicando que nadie sabe con seguridad.

Así que decidí hacer algo respecto de ello, esto es ... contarnos.

Bueno, casi. Lo que hice fue identificar a los ciudadanos argentinos con apellidos croatas. La tarea no es fácil, y uno debe ser consciente de las muchas fuentes de errors. Errores subsisten, pero de todos modos, enwww.studiacroatica.com/ape/ape.htm  puede verse una lista de 10000 apellidos croatas en Argentina, incluyendo sus frecuencias. En total somos unos 110000 portadores de apellidos croatas, nacidos hasta 1983 (desde 1979 los datos son incompletos), lo que significa que hoy somos unos 40000 más. Estos números no incluyen descendientes croatas que no llevan un (primer) apellido croata.

Los comentarios serán apreciados. Un escrito sobre como se hizo este trabajo, -sus alcances, dificultades y fuentes de errores- puede solicitarse via email.

Joza Vrljicak
joza@velocom.com.ar

- - - - - - - -
This Bulletin is published by the journal Studia Croatica - Institute for Croatian Culture. The journal is published in Buenos Aires since 1960 - The Bulletin is distributed in two versions, Spanish and English, to some 2300 email adresses in 30 countries. Please tell us if you do not want to receive more this kind of material. Studia Croatica is on the Web since 1996, -where it has some 17500 pages in Spanish, French, English and Croatian. It receives some 140000 hits per month. www.studiacroatica.com - joza@velocom.com.ar.

Este Boletín es publicado por la revista Studia Croatica - Instituto de Cultura Croata, editada en Buenos Aires desde 1960 - El Boletín se distribuye en castellano e inglés a unas 2300 direcciones electrónicas en 30 países. Rogamos nos comuniquen si no desean recibir este tipo de información. Studia Croatica se encuentra en la Web desde 1996, -donde tiene unas 17500 páginas en castellano, francés, inglés y croata- y recibe unas 140000 visitas por mes.www.studiacroatica.com  -joza@velocom.com.ar .

Composer Dallapiccola From Pazin

The following appeared in the London based The Guardian newspaper and
concerns a composer from Pazin called Luigi Dallapicola - I admit this
is the first I heard of him. John Kraljic

Songs of freedom

Interned in the first world war and persecuted in the second, Luigi
Dallapiccola had a deep hatred of tyranny. His groundbreaking music
deserves to be celebrated as an expression of liberation, says Misha
Donat

Friday February 13, 2004
The Guardian

On April 1 1924, Schoenberg arrived in Florence with his touring
ensemble for a performance of his expressionist cabaret piece Pierrot
Lunaire at the Palazzo Pitti. Most of those present regarded the
occasion as an elaborate April fool, but at least two people sat
listening intently. One was Italy's most famous living composer.
Although terminally ill with throat cancer, he had driven the 50-odd
miles from his home in Viareggio to hear the performance, and after it
ended he asked to be presented to Schoenberg. The other was a
20-year-old music student named Luigi Dallapiccola. Not for a further 25
years did Dallapiccola summon up the courage to write to Schoenberg and
explain how that evening had been a defining moment in his life. For his
part, Schoenberg confessed how proud he'd always been that Puccini had
come to the Pierrot concert.

There is, perhaps, something symbolic about the way the paths of the
three composers crossed for that brief moment. For it is in
Dallapiccola's music that Italianate warmth and lyricism find a meeting
ground with Austro-German contrapuntal rigour. In fact, Dallapiccola -
born on February 3 1904 - was the first significant composer in his
country to adopt the 12-note method of composition that Schoenberg had
formulated in the early 1920s as a means of unifying music that no
longer relied on the traditional major and minor keys. In so doing
Dallapiccola may be said to have brought Italian music very belatedly
into the 20th century. Not surprisingly, he was something of a father
figure to the generation of Italian composers that came after him: he
was for a brief period the teacher of Luciano Berio, and his music was
deeply admired by Luigi Nono and Bruno Maderna.

As Dallapiccola was finding his feet as a composer, Italy was going
through its darkest period, politically and culturally. Even
Dallapiccola flirted briefly with fascism in the 1930s. His eyes were
opened on September 1 1938, when Mussolini issued Italy's anti-semitic
racial laws. "I wanted to protest," Dallapiccola said later, "but I
wasn't so naive as not to know that in a totalitarian state the
individual is powerless. Only in music could I express my indignation."
Earlier that year Dallapiccola had married a Jewish woman, and the
couple were forced to seek refuge in the hills surrounding Florence. On
the day of Mussolini's proclamation, Dallapiccola began work on his
Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment) - the first in a series of
"protest" works.

A hatred of tyranny and oppression had been instilled in Dallapiccola
from an early age. He was born on February 3 1904, in a frontier town on
the Istrian peninsula near Trieste. At the time it was part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, though after the first world war it reverted to
Italy. (It is now in Croatia.) The composer recalled that when a train
pulled in to the local station, the guard would announce its name in
three languages: Mitterburg/Pisino/Pazin - an indication of its status
as a cultural melting-pot. The Austrian authorities were quick to stamp
on any suspected irredentist sympathies among the Italian population,
and Dallapiccola's father - a classics teacher at the only
Italian-language school - was considered "politically unreliable". As a
result the school was closed down, and the family deported to the
Styrian capital of Graz.

The experience of internment left a deep scar on Dallapiccola. The Canti
di Prigionia (scored for chorus with an instrumental ensemble consisting
of two harps, two pianos and percussion) sets texts by three condemned
prisoners: Mary Stuart, Boethius and Savonarola. Mary Stuart's fervent
prayer for freedom struck a particularly strong chord: "I wanted,"
Dallapiccola said, "the divine word libera to be shouted by everyone."
Some five years later, when his only child was born shortly after the
libera tion of Florence from the Nazi occupation in August 1944, she was
named Annalibera.

Dallapiccola's progress towards 12-note music was a gradual one, and it
was made difficult by the lack of performances of the music of
Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in Italy. But he managed to acquire a score
of Berg's Wozzeck and, in 1934, he heard the same composer's
concert-aria Der Wein at a contemporary music festival in Venice. The
two works left an indelible impression on him - as did Lulu, of which he
heard the first broadcast performance in 1937. At that time Dallapiccola
was working on his own first opera, Volo di Notte (based on
Saint-Exupéry's novel Vol de Nuit), and Berg's influence can be heard
throughout: in the opera's symphonic musical forms; in the casting of
one of its scenes as a "pezzo ritmico" (an idea that harks back to the
"monoritmica" that reaches its climax with the suicide of Lulu's husband
in the first act of Berg's opera) and in the Movimento di Blues, which
echoes the off-stage jazz band interludes that punctuate the scene in
Lulu's dressing-room.

Dallapiccola lived in Florence for more than 50 years, the majority of
them in an apartment in the Via Romana overlooking the Boboli Gardens,
and his exquisitely executed scores have an air of Florentine
craftsmanship about them. Even the look of the music on the page carries
symbolic significance, as it occasionally does in Italian renaissance
music. In his one-act opera Il Prigioniero, set during the Spanish
Inquisition, a prisoner is led to believe that freedom is at hand. He
manages to escape his cell but as he emerges into a starlit garden, only
to fall into the arms of the Grand Inquisitor, he understands that all
the events leading to his escape have been pre-arranged as the ultimate
torture - hope. In the music, a complex web of ricercars, or intricate
contrapuntal studies, seems to reflect the labyrinth of Saragossa's
subterranean corridors through which the prisoner stumbles.

In the beautiful late piece Sicut Umbra ... for mezzo-soprano and
chamber ensemble, Juan Ramón Jiménez's lines "Hay que buscar, para saber
tu tumba, por el firmamiento" ("You have to search the firmament to know
your tomb") are mirrored by melodic lines based on the shapes of various
constellations, which Dallapiccola "draws" in the score. And the Cinque
Canti of 1956 for baritone and chamber ensemble use a 12-note row whose
sinuous line suggests the shape of a crucifix. At the work's mid-point a
single "tutti" chord in an otherwise sparsely scored passage enables
Dallapiccola to "draw" an actual cross on the page. The listener may not
consciously be aware of such symbolic devices, but they nevertheless
cast a metaphysical shadow over the music.

At the heart of Dallapiccola's art lie elaborate canons of every
conceivable kind. They are heard at their most serenely simple in the
Wartime Series of Greek Lyrics the composer wrote as a mental refuge
from the turmoil that surrounded him. More complex are the Goethe-Lieder
of 1953 for voice and three clarinets, based on poems from the
Westöstlicher Divan. In one, the character of Suleika contemplates her
reflection: "The mirror tells me I am beautiful. You tell me it is also
my fate to age." Dallapiccola writes a mirror-canon, with the answering
voice not only upside-down but also in a refracted rhythm that suggests
the process of ageing, as though in a distorted looking-glass.

There is in Dallapiccola's art a touching faith in the 12-note system,
almost as a way of life. That faith is one that is deeply unfashionable
today. Thirty years ago, at the time of the composer's 70th birthday, I
produced a retrospective evening of his work for Radio 3, and I remember
asking him what was being done in Italy to mark the occasion. "I think
nothing," he said, with a resigned shrug of the shoulders.

At least this time round, on his centenary, there will be performances
of his music in Rome and Florence. But over here there have been
precious few attempts to spark a revival of interest in recent years,
other than a rather ill-judged production of Il Prigioniero at English
National Opera. It's difficult to know why this hauntingly beautiful
music remains so little known to all but a small circle of admirers.
Certainly, it is undemonstrative in its perfection; but that very
perfection is a quality we should treasure.


ˇ Send any comments or feedback about this article to
friday.review@guardian.co.uk

Guitarist Robert Belinic to perform in Maryland

The Marlow Guitar Series presents Robert Belinic,
a young Croatian and the first guitarist to win the
prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

When: Saturday, February 28, 8 p.m.
Where: Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ
1 Westmoreland Circle, Bethesda, MD 20816
Tickets: $17; Call 202-265-3915 or visithttp://www.marlowguitar.org/concertfour.html

A museum devoted to war photography

June in Dubrovnik

From today's NY Times. John Kraljic

PHOTOGRAPHY: IMAGES OF WAR A museum devoted to war photography is to
open in June in Dubrovnik, in southern Croatia, Agence France-Presse
reported. Described by its curators as the first of its kind, the
institution, tentatively called the Museum of War, will be inaugurated
by "Blood and Honey," an exhibition by 10 photographers who covered the
conflict in the 1990's in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. "The
focus will be on the world's greatest war photographers, and their work
will be used to educate the public," said Wade Goddard, the museum's
director. "Our aim is to take away the Hollywood image that war is only
about glory." Exhibitions are planned about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, the Sept. 11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq.

An Opera Concerning NikolaTesla

"He was both ahead of his time... and out of his time,"
 

Philadelphia Inquirer - 13 February 2004

Contemplate the possibility: Thomas Edison - the opera.

Ka-thup. The idea is dead on arrival. Inventing lightbulbs, it seems,
just isn't poetic enough to sing about.

Yet mention Edison's lesser-known rival and contemporary, the enigmatic,
eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, and music becomes imaginable. Enough to
fill an opera? The answer comes with the world premiere of Violet Fire,
a high-tech, nonlinear music-theater piece that will debut Friday and
Saturday [13 and 14 February] at Temple University's Tomlinson Theater.

The ingredients are a light-year or two away from, say, the Opera
Company of Philadelphia. Electrical coils worthy of a Frankenstein
laboratory stand on each side of the stage. Singers, who are Temple
students, are wired with microphones - not to amplify their voices, but
to pick up waves of body energy that are projected onto video screens
onstage. The orchestra is Philadelphia's ever-progressive Relâche
ensemble, its jazzlike percussion section assuring that the music will
have the driving rhythm that matches the onstage electric currents.

How all of this - plus choreography - fits together is up to stage
director Terry O'Reilly from New York's cutting-edge Mabou Mines theater
company. He's taking philosophical cues from Tesla's world: "Scientists
create situations in which nature reveals itself; I try to create
situations where the text will reveal itself."

Revealing Tesla can never be easy, even with composer Jon Gibson (a
longtime collaborator of Philip Glass), five state-of-the-art
computerized projectors with visuals constructed by Temple new-media
assistant professor Sarah Drury in conjunction with media designer Jen
Simmons, plus the words of the project's mastermind, librettist Miriam
Seidel.

The Croatian - born Tesla, who lived from 1856 to 1943 and held more than
700 patents, is best known for establishing alternating electrical
currents (AC) over direct current (DC), as well as for harnessing
Niagara Falls for its electricity-generating potential. Unlike many
turn-of-the-century inventors, however, Tesla didn't practice an
exhaustive process of elimination until the bulb, figuratively speaking,
lit. He envisioned what he wanted to create.

"In my mind," he once wrote, "I change the construction, make
improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a
sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen ... It is
immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my
shop. The inventions I have conceived in this way have always worked."

Though ridden with so many phobias he supposedly had no sex life, Tesla
maintained a godlike aura. He claimed to zap himself with 100,000 volts
(while wearing cork shoes), adding that it was conducive to good health.
Later years, however, were littered with ambitious failures, or at least
projects that didn't come to fruition due to faithless funders such as
J. P. Morgan.

Tesla once hobnobbed with the highest of New York society at Delmonico's
restaurant, but he died an eccentric curiosity at the New Yorker Hotel,
supported by a small stipend from a company that probably wouldn't have
continued existing without him: Westinghouse Electric.

"A story he told a reporter late in his life was about a pigeon that
flew to his window, and he had this vision. He saw light, a greater
light than he ever saw in his laboratory," librettist Seidel says. "Had
this guy lived in the Middle Ages, he would've been a mystic. I remember
thinking, 'This has to be an opera.' Opera goes beyond the real."

That was 10 years ago. The pigeon vision came to play such a role in
Seidel's thinking that, at one point, the working title for the opera
was The White Dove. Composer Gibson, who joined the project in 1997,
argued against it. "I said, 'Miriam, they're pigeons.' "

The new title, Violet Fire, has numerous connections with the Tesla
legend. In some of his more radical experiments, he was known to create
his own aurora borealis. In his declining years, Tesla became a
science-fiction cult figure whose predictions ran in magazines such as
Amazing Stories.

Seidel minimized the more murky speculations about what actually
happened to his so-called laserlike "death beam" that the Soviet Union
claimed to have developed during the Cold War. Some of Tesla's intricate
notebooks went missing after his death and still haven't been located.
It's possible that he was really onto something. "He was both ahead of
his time... and out of his time," O'Reilly says.

The form for Violet Fire harks back to the Philip Glass operas of the
1980s, Satyagraha and Akhnaten, free-floating portrayals that don't
attempt psychological portrayal but are a series of "docu-meditations"
from key points in lives of remarkable men.

The idea met with much encouragement from modern-music circles, but not
offers of money. The current production's remarkably lean $30,000 budget
came together through various private and public-agency grants, but most
notably a Provost's Commission for the Arts grant at Temple - $5,000
encouraging collaboration among the university's various academic
departments.

Besides using student singers and dancers, the grant also opened the
door to improvements that might not otherwise have happened. John
Douglas, associate professor of voice and opera, worked with Gibson
extensively on the vocal writing, for example. "I thought the opera was
finished," Gibson says. "I thought it was finished two or three times.
But John helped me a lot on how to properly notate for the voice."

Because of the long gestation, the production missed the distinction of
being the first major opera about Tesla. Exactly a year ago, the Ten
Days on the Island festival in the Australian state of Tasmania
premiered Tesla: lightning in his hand, a more conventional work
featuring singing versions of Edison and George Westinghouse.

With any luck, the Seidel-Gibson Tesla will be better traveled. The
opera's particular brand of high technology allows not only fantastical
visuals but also portability. The weekend's two performances - plus
tonight's dress rehearsal, which is open to walk-up ticket buyers - will
be attended by any number of presenters interested in the opera's
touring possibilities.

The one question that's most likely to be asked by the audience,
however, doesn't involve Tesla, the inventions or the production, but
one of the dancers, Milsy Davis. Could it be that she's pregnant, yet
dancing anyway? Yes.

"I'm just so passionate about the piece," says the Collegeville-based
Temple graduate, who is only 10 weeks away from giving birth. "I feel
better after rehearsals than before." So now you know.