New book!
Tesla’s Opera: The Real, Stranger-Than-Fiction Nikola Tesla offers readers a revealing portrait of Nikola Tesla through the opera about him, Violet Fire. The opera was created with my libretto and a score by minimalist composer Jon Gibson. Violet Fire received its first performance in Philadelphia, its world premiere in Serbia, Tesla’s homeland, and its US premiere in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in 2006—to celebrate Tesla’s 150th birthday. The book came out from Fomite Press in September 2025.
The book, which I’ve edited, offers the full libretto, photographs from the performances, excerpts from the score, and commentary by me, director Terry O’Reilly, conductor Ana Zorana Brajović, critic Merilyn Jackson, and novelist/essayist/poet Andrei Codrescu. Tesla’s legacy has been obscured, ironically, as his name has become widely known in connection with electric cars. This book offers a beautiful, heartfelt testament to the real, stranger-than-fiction visionary inventor.
Advance praise for Tesla’s Opera:
In Tesla’s Opera, Mir Seidel has crafted an inspired and visually stunning tribute to one of history’s greatest minds. Through music, choreography, and imaginative staging, this colorful book celebrates Nikola Tesla’s life in a way that is both joyful and moving. To quote one of the book’s contributors, “Tesla could make you proud to be human”—and this creative homage does just that. Insightful, festive, and richly layered, Tesla’s Opera brings Tesla’s multifaceted brilliance to life with style, wit, and heart.
—Marc J. Seifer, author of Wizard: The Life & Times of Nikola Tesla and Tesla: Wizard at War
Whatever happens through the centuries about Tesla, misusing his name, copying his work, this will still never overshadow his genius and contribution to mankind.
—Marina Abramovic, Serbian-American artist
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