Next month, a movie called The Current War will debut, chronicling the struggle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse for the electrical system – direct or alternating current – that would power the looming industrial future. The movie also includes Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-born advocate of AC power who also dreamed big about bringing energy to the entire globe for … [Read more...]
New opera salutes Tesla, tragic scientific hero
The Serbian-born American inventor and electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla has become a hot property over the past couple decades, regaining something of the national recognition he enjoyed in his prime in the early 20th century, but this time as a counterculture hero. In addition to physics units, rock bands and electric cars being named for him, Tesla’s alternating-current … [Read more...]
Lensky stands out in second cast of FGO’s ‘Onegin’
By Robert Croan Although composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was Russian through and through, his music was highly influenced by his mainstream European contemporaries. His orchestral writing was a continuation of the Germanic styles of Schumann and Brahms. Eugene Onegin – his most famous opera, first performed in Moscow in 1879 and newly presented by Florida Grand Opera … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Onegin’ beautiful, satisfying
Of all the operas of Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin is the best-loved, and its profusion of engaging melody is surely one of the primary reasons. But it also helps when the cast is strong enough to give those melodies the ride they deserve, and happily, Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Eugene Onegin hits its marks in that regard, and in providing a fine night at the … [Read more...]