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Commentary: Inventor's Opera Turn

By Andrei Codrescu

Published March 23, 2004 at 12:00 AM EST

Commentator Andrei Codrescu tells about an opera called Violet Fire, based on the life of pioneering inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla lived from 1856 to 1943. While he has been relegated to obscurity, Tesla helped create the bedrock of modern technology.

Andrei Codrescu

See stories by Andrei Codrescu

Stories From This Author

Google Backs A New Digital World, But What About The Real New World?

Andrei Codrescu

As Google invests in a startup called Improbable, a digital simulation of real cities, economies and biological systems, commentator Andrei Codrescu thinks of Communism and that dream of a new world.
The Kaypro II: An Early Computer With A Writer's Heart

Andrei Codrescu

Commentator Andrei Codrescu remembers the first word processor he had — the Kaypro II in the 1980s. Its inventor, Andrew Kay, died Aug. 28, at the age of 95.
Is There Any Meaning In Poet Seamus Heaney's Last Text?

Andrei Codrescu

Commentator Andrei Codrescu reflects on the text message written by poet Seamus Heaney just before he died. In Latin he wrote to his wife "do not be afraid." The 74-year-old Heaney died in a Dublin hospital last week. Codrescu says no great meaning should be implied — it was just a personal message to his wife.