Photo by Bruce Miller
TESLA - Lightning in his Hand
By Constantine Koukia Libretto by Marianne Fisher
An opera in two parts, sung in English
An opera in two parts, sung in English
2005 Excerpts Playhouse Theatre Adelaide
2003 Premiere Ten Days on the Island, Hobart
2000 Images from the Life of Nikola Tesla - Workshop, Hobart
2000 The Tesla Project - Workshop, Hobart
Act One
The opera commences with the arrival of Nikola Tesla in America. Having worked for the Edison Company Paris branch he has a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison to gain work in the US. Tesla and Edison are fundamentally different in their approaches to scientific research and invention. Edison believes in 'one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration' and will experiment until he gets the right answer. Tesla has a more cerebral approach, solving all potential difficulties in his mind and only building the invention when he has the answer. Edison, who has been working on ways to distribute direct current power for his inventions employs Tesla with a promise of a major financial bonus if he can solve a challenging problem with a dynamo. A prodigious worker who needed little sleep, Tesla works night and day to solve the problem. When Tesla claims the bonus which he needs to fund his own research into alternating power systems, he is told by Edison that he does not understand 'the humour of America'. Profoundly disappointed, Tesla leaves the employ of Edison.
Fortunately, Tesla strikes up a friendship and business partnership with industrialist, inventor and philanthropist, George Westinghouse. With the support of Westinghouse, Tesla establishes his own laboratory to research alternating current. He employs assistants and secretaries including two women who Tesla only ever refers to as 'Miss and Miss'. He is now pursuing his dream, and he is a popular man on the New York social set.
While watching a sunset Tesla recalls the words from Goethe's Faust and finally sees the solution to the managing alternating current. It is a moment of triumph. Meanwhile, Edison has continued to develop direct current systems. He enters into a bitter and very public battle with Westinghouse on the relative merits of AC and DC. New York is preparing for the first execution of a man by electricity. Edison uses AC systems on model electric chairs to demonstrate the lethal power of the high voltages used in AC systems.
Edison also coins the phrase getting 'westinghoused' for execution by electrocution. Westinghouse, on the other hand, uses AC to create a magnificent display at the World's Fair in Chicago and points out the weaknesses of DC over long distances. The battle and the first act ends with the awarding of a contract to build the world's first hydro electric power station at Niagara Falls using Tesla's designs.
Act Two
The second act has a shift in narrative as the characters become more like witnesses to the flaws in Tesla that lead to his decline into poverty and solitude. Edison has accepted the superiority of AC systems but foreshadows the lack of business acumen that makes Tesla fail to capitalise on his work.
Now that the problems associated with alternating current have been solved, Tesla is feverishly working on his dream of wireless transmission of power. He has a myriad of ideas to explore and his visions for the future, free power and communication across the world, dominate his research.
In 1909, there is a significant fall in the stock market and George Westinghouse loses his financial stability. In a gesture both loyal and foolish, Nikola Tesla tears up the documents ensuring his royalty payments to ensure the financial survival of Westinghouse's companies. Tesla is confident that he will receive financial backing from other industrialists to continue his work. He refers to the money he receives from J. Pierpont Morgan.
Tesla has established a laboratory in Colorado where he builds a tower to enable experiments with the Tesla Coil, wireless transmission and the resonance of the Earth. In a stupendous experiment he generates the largest man made lighting bolt and knocks out the power grid for the whole city! Once more from the sidelines Edison comments on the lack of understanding Tesla has for the realities of investment. Businessmen will not invest in the development of inventions that destroy their own livelihoods.
Westinghouse reappears as a vision to sing of his legacy of inventions and good work. It is clear that the names of Westinghouse and Edison will survive into the future through the companies they founded. Tesla continues to work and publish his ideas despite his lack of funding. The scientific community respects his work but he is more widely regarded as an eccentric whose far fetched ideas are regarded as either humorous or potentially dangerous. Despite his publicly avowed loyalty to the US he is investigated by the FBI for possible association with Soviet Russia.
Telsa dies alone and forgotten in a New York hotel room with his only friends, the pigeons, for company. Upon his death all his papers are confiscated by the Office of Alien Affairs and secreted away in Locker 103.
Premiere Season: Ten Days on the Island festival 2003
Article - Siglo Magazine, 2000 (PDF)
Tesla: Lightning in his Hand Program (PDF)
Tesla: Lightning in his Hand Program (PDF) from 10 Days on the Island Festival
2003 Premiere Ten Days on the Island, Hobart
2000 Images from the Life of Nikola Tesla - Workshop, Hobart
2000 The Tesla Project - Workshop, Hobart
Act One
The opera commences with the arrival of Nikola Tesla in America. Having worked for the Edison Company Paris branch he has a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison to gain work in the US. Tesla and Edison are fundamentally different in their approaches to scientific research and invention. Edison believes in 'one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration' and will experiment until he gets the right answer. Tesla has a more cerebral approach, solving all potential difficulties in his mind and only building the invention when he has the answer. Edison, who has been working on ways to distribute direct current power for his inventions employs Tesla with a promise of a major financial bonus if he can solve a challenging problem with a dynamo. A prodigious worker who needed little sleep, Tesla works night and day to solve the problem. When Tesla claims the bonus which he needs to fund his own research into alternating power systems, he is told by Edison that he does not understand 'the humour of America'. Profoundly disappointed, Tesla leaves the employ of Edison.
Fortunately, Tesla strikes up a friendship and business partnership with industrialist, inventor and philanthropist, George Westinghouse. With the support of Westinghouse, Tesla establishes his own laboratory to research alternating current. He employs assistants and secretaries including two women who Tesla only ever refers to as 'Miss and Miss'. He is now pursuing his dream, and he is a popular man on the New York social set.
While watching a sunset Tesla recalls the words from Goethe's Faust and finally sees the solution to the managing alternating current. It is a moment of triumph. Meanwhile, Edison has continued to develop direct current systems. He enters into a bitter and very public battle with Westinghouse on the relative merits of AC and DC. New York is preparing for the first execution of a man by electricity. Edison uses AC systems on model electric chairs to demonstrate the lethal power of the high voltages used in AC systems.
Edison also coins the phrase getting 'westinghoused' for execution by electrocution. Westinghouse, on the other hand, uses AC to create a magnificent display at the World's Fair in Chicago and points out the weaknesses of DC over long distances. The battle and the first act ends with the awarding of a contract to build the world's first hydro electric power station at Niagara Falls using Tesla's designs.
Act Two
The second act has a shift in narrative as the characters become more like witnesses to the flaws in Tesla that lead to his decline into poverty and solitude. Edison has accepted the superiority of AC systems but foreshadows the lack of business acumen that makes Tesla fail to capitalise on his work.
Now that the problems associated with alternating current have been solved, Tesla is feverishly working on his dream of wireless transmission of power. He has a myriad of ideas to explore and his visions for the future, free power and communication across the world, dominate his research.
In 1909, there is a significant fall in the stock market and George Westinghouse loses his financial stability. In a gesture both loyal and foolish, Nikola Tesla tears up the documents ensuring his royalty payments to ensure the financial survival of Westinghouse's companies. Tesla is confident that he will receive financial backing from other industrialists to continue his work. He refers to the money he receives from J. Pierpont Morgan.
Tesla has established a laboratory in Colorado where he builds a tower to enable experiments with the Tesla Coil, wireless transmission and the resonance of the Earth. In a stupendous experiment he generates the largest man made lighting bolt and knocks out the power grid for the whole city! Once more from the sidelines Edison comments on the lack of understanding Tesla has for the realities of investment. Businessmen will not invest in the development of inventions that destroy their own livelihoods.
Westinghouse reappears as a vision to sing of his legacy of inventions and good work. It is clear that the names of Westinghouse and Edison will survive into the future through the companies they founded. Tesla continues to work and publish his ideas despite his lack of funding. The scientific community respects his work but he is more widely regarded as an eccentric whose far fetched ideas are regarded as either humorous or potentially dangerous. Despite his publicly avowed loyalty to the US he is investigated by the FBI for possible association with Soviet Russia.
Telsa dies alone and forgotten in a New York hotel room with his only friends, the pigeons, for company. Upon his death all his papers are confiscated by the Office of Alien Affairs and secreted away in Locker 103.
Premiere Season: Ten Days on the Island festival 2003
| Streaming Media from Tesla - Lightning In His Hand | |
| Opening | |
| Invisible Rays of Heaven | |
| Westinghouse | |
| Foolish Dream | |
| Tesla | |
| A Modern Prometheus | |
| Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla - Tesla, you take the cake! | |
| Tesla Final Aria | |
Article - Siglo Magazine, 2000 (PDF)
Tesla: Lightning in his Hand Program (PDF)
Tesla: Lightning in his Hand Program (PDF) from 10 Days on the Island Festival
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Photography courtesy of Ten Days on the Island Festival
