The AMANDA Neutrino Telescope: Science Prospects and Performance at First Light

We update the science prospects for the recently completed AMANDA South Pole neutrino detector. With an effective telescope area of order 10^4 m^2 and a threshold of ~50 GeV, it represents the first instrument of a new generation of high energy neutrino detectors, envisaged over 25 years ago. We describe the instrument and its performance, and map its expansion to a detector of kilometer dimension.