The work is a series of ornate tableaus that successively portray the arrival of the first steamboat, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the discovery of the electric battery by Alessandro Volta, the invention of the telegraph, the opening of the Suez Canal, the first attempt to build a canal across Panama and the tunneling under Mount Cenis that linked Italy and France in 1871. The last of 11 scenes, ''Apotheosis,'' is a festival of nations with flag-waving dancers decked out in symbolic costumes.