“Life For Ever After”

The young Christian woman locates her friends at their local haunt, and, one by one, gently shares with them the truth of the Salvation that Jesus has already has provided for them. It is her fondest hope that at least one of them will make the ultimate decision to embrace their Creator and accept His greatest of all gifts to His children: Life, for ever after.

All of her friends reject her message. But, an overhearing woman — a prostitute — is fascinated by the words, and, soon after, privately commits her life to Christ in prayer. A spotlight then shines down upon her from directly above, signifying her new Salvation.

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Tags: angel, Bible, eternity, friends, God, Gospel, Heaven, Jesus Christ, modern opera, prayer, prostitute, repentance, salvation, Saved, witness


 “The Fall”

The opera begins with a lone angel, sitting high up and in the distance. He is solemnly and slowly poring over a large Book, first at the left-hand page, then at the right. The angel slowly shakes his head in sadness, bows it, and closes the Book.

The next scene is a battlefield during wartime. Both the geographical area and the soldiers’ uniforms are generic, but a time period slightly in the future is suggested by the presence of armed female combatants marching with males and in equal numbers. The soldiers are singing a military march which boasts of their power. Very soon, though, all are killed by a powerful land mine blast.

In the next scene, they are spirits. A large shadow of a pointing hand appears on the curtain: God tells the spirits to “Depart”. Next, there is silence and almost total darkness. The spirits are wondering where they are and what has happened. Satan appears, and explains that they now belong to him. He has a lot of cruel fun with the full explanation, holding back information and dragging out the process for as long as amuses him. The spirits simply cannot accept their new reality at first. But toward the end of this scene, they realize their doom in full. With profound sorrow and regret, they finally accept their most grim of all fates, and their wills melt into eternal defeat. A circle made up of demons rapidly closes in upon the spirits as this ultra-tragic piece ends.

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Tags: battlefield, damnation, death, demon, disturbing, evil, fate, God, Hell, inspiring, land mine, military march, modern opera, sad, Satan, soliders, soul, spirit, terror, tragedy, unsettling, war

A single story thread runs through both operas, beginning in “Project Eternity” and ending with its sequel, “Vengeance”. I should explain the meanings of the two titles here. “Project Eternity” refers simply to God’s wish and various attempts to bring each of us to Heaven. The title “Vengeance” refers to Satan’s expressed vow of retribution against our protagonist, the unnamed young Christian woman, for her indirectly sharing the Gospel with a prostitute, who overhears it as the Christian woman is explaining eternal salvation to a friend. Her friend disdainfully rejects the message and leaves, but the prostitute who overhears it feels moved by God to repent, and, then and there, privately turns her life over to Him. She enters Heaven in the final scene of “Project Eternity”. Satan is livid at this turn of events; after all, he had owned that woman’s soul, and she would have been his to torment forever — until the Christian woman came along and interfered. Thus, in “Vengeance”, Satan takes out his wrath in full upon our protagonist.

Tags: angel, chorus, Christian, classical music, demon, God, Jesus Christ, modern opera, Satan