“Advice”

The second opera of the pair opens with this idyllic outdoor scene at a luxurious beach vacation resort. Our protagonist, the young woman from “Project Eternity”, is sipping a fancy drink with her boyfriend and his parents at an open-air restaurant. The mood is set with a relaxing and then playful mix of strings, then oboe, then clarinet.

Her boyfriend’s parents then begin, simultaneously no less, to question the young woman about her faith, which they relate they find offensive. They sing these lines as a pretty, major-key duet which, together with their accusing words, represents their passive-aggressiveness.

Both the young woman and her boyfriend answer these pointed questions — he first, with a denial that she is even a Christian, but then she, with direct honesty.

The parents then proceed to snub her, making a thinly-veiled suggestion to their son that he date a different girl. They even suggest one in particular, whom he is aware already likes him. This new information to the young woman provokes a jealous look from her to him. His parents then continue giving their simplistic and unsolicited advice.

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Tags: advice, argue, beach, beach resort, boyfriend, Christian, conversation, discussion, drink, girlfriend, idyllic, judgmental, modern opera, paradise, parents, relaxing, resort, warm summer day


 “The Lie”

A new scene opens, in which Satan boasts aloud of his unparalleled skill in deception. He smugly muses over just how very simple it is for him to lead mankind to their ultimate destruction. After he’s finished gloating in soliloquy, the young Christian woman enters the scene with her four friends, her clearly having decided in favor of her love for her friends, over and against her own personal and immediate emotional need to grieve over the recent death of her brother.

Satan then stands nearby, unseen by all except us, as a strange man approaches the group. Satan exerts a strong spiritual influence over the man, feeding him a powerful urge to bully the young group and to block their path. Satan also puts into the man brilliantly deceptive things to say, in order to dissuade the group, or at least some of its members, from proceeding and attending the church event.

The young woman humbly relies upon the wisdom of God within her to successfully answer the man’s subtle arguments and strong accusations. But her four friends eventually believe the boor, heed his clever lies and discouragements, and forsake her one by one.

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Tags: argue, bully, Christian concert, chruch, clever, debate, deception, demonic possession, evil, friends, Gospel, modern opera, sacrifice, sad, salvation, Satan, subtlety, young woman