“Goodbye Good Girl, and Thanks”

This scene takes place in the boyfriend’s parents’ living room. I chose a ‘Slow Rock’ style for this piece, which is played without any singing most of the way through. Musically based on her opening sung theme at the beginning of the opera, in “Advice”, this song is a tribute to the young woman after her death.

The boyfriend silently mimes a conversation he is having with his parents, who frequently respond by nodding in agreement. No words are needed, because we can plainly see what is occurring: He is reading from a Bible while they follow along, and then explaining the meanings behind certain verses to them.

We’ve witnessed his parents objecting strongly and openly to Christianity in the past, so we know that something has definitely changed in their thinking, since they now listen appreciatively.

At the end of this scene, the parents and their son bow their heads together in prayer. At the end of this prayer, two overhead spotlights shine down upon the parents — one upon each of them — symbolizing that, since they truly meant their prayers of repentance, they have now received God’s free gift of eternal Salvation, and will surely enter Heaven.

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Tags: Bible teaching, boyfriend, drums, electric guitar, eternal salvation, free gift, Gospel, happy, modern opera, prayer, repent, salvation, soft rock


 “A Prayer”

In this scene, our protagonist dies. The young woman is first seen on her hospital bed, barely clinging to life. Alone in her room, she soon stretches her hand up toward Heaven, and gives a weak-voiced, one-word prayer — all that she can manage — a plea for her boyfriend’s parents.

Simultaneously, but off to the side of the stage and in an otherworldly environment, her boyfriend’s parents are standing still and wearing blindfolds, demons surrounding them. Yet the parents don’t seem afraid. If anything, they look quite relaxed and contented, standing rather casually instead of rigidly, clearly not noticing.

On the opposite side of the stage, by himself, the boyfriend is on his knees, praying. As soon as he begins to pray, the demons cease their threatening advance toward his parents, look upward apprehensively, and then glare toward where the young woman is.

Both side-scenes are then darkened, and we once again can see only the young woman in her room. She now begins to have difficulty breathing. She turns her head toward the audience. Then, she is gone.

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Tags: believe, boyfriend, death, demon, disease, dying wish, evil, faith, girlfriend, happy, illness, Jesus Christ, modern opera, otherworldly, prayer, repentance, sad, salvation


 “Vengeance”

Sharing the title of its opera, this central-thematic piece finds Satan and his demons in a peak of rage, plotting revenge against our protagonist for her indirect and inadvertent sharing of the Gospel with the eavesdropping prostitute in the first opera, “Project Eternity”.

The hearer had repented right then and there, and she sought God earnestly from that day forward.

She eventually died and entered Heaven. And for that, Satan and a great horde of screaming and raging demons now vow to bring down upon our protagonist a terrible act of Vengeance.

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Tags: demon, evil, modern opera, rage, revenge, sad, salvation, Satan, vexed


 “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 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


“Continuing Nightmares”

Sitting straight up in her bed in the dim moonlight, the young woman seems truly overwhelmed by the new combination of her current grief over her brother and the ghastly nature of the images in her recent dreams. She slowly looks downward in sadness, then eventually upward as if to God. Without a word, she somehow finds a small amount of peace — enough to try and go back to sleep and just hope for the best.

After she resumes her sleep, however, the terror returns, but along with a new and much more pointed set of prophetic visions. Suddenly, in the middle of all the action of the people and demons in her dream, everything freezes in time, outside of which we now see the original angel — the one from the very first scene in the opera, the one with the Book. He is again somberly reading the Book. The elements in the scene the young woman dreams are still a bit surreal and proverbial in nature, but one thing she now knows for certain: Her friends are in great danger!

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Tags: angel, Book, chase, damnation, demon, evil, modern opera, nightmare, prophetic, sad, salvation, terror


“Dilemma”

This scene takes us back to the interior of our protagonist’s home, once again, but this time in the middle of the night. She is slowly pacing, with her head lowered, clearly feeling buried in heavy thoughts. She laments aloud her predicament, which involves a specific decision which she is now faced with. Somehow, she must reconcile the two main events that have occurred with her so far in our story: the recent death of her brother, and the invitation she offered to take her friends to church for the unique event. Her being personally so grief-stricken, the church event seems trivial in appearance.

But, as so many “regular” events in our lives prove themselves to be, the significance is actually quite profound. The reason is that she plans for her friends to attend an especially moving concert with her, after which the Gospel message of Christ will be shared with the audience. This new significance is revealed to us in a soliloquy, as she thinks out her problem: She is deeply depressed due to the loss of her brother, but she is also highly convinced that this particular one-time church event will likely be an eternity-deciding point in her friends’ lives. Thus, to her mind, her love for them is placed directly at odds with her very personal and profound need to grieve her recent loss.

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Tags: anxiety, Christian, depression, difficulty, dilemma, eternity, grief, impasse, modern opera, night, pacing, sad, salvation, soliloquy, worry


 “Forever Lost”

In the same scene, the young woman unexpectedly receives a knock at her door. She opens the door to reveal a sorrowful solider. He informs her that her brother has been killed in battle. (He was among the soldiers we saw in the first scene.) The lights go off as the music continues, and a new scene presents itself in dim light. It is the graveyard, several days after her brother’s funeral. It is nighttime, and there is the sound of drizzling rain accompanied by occasional soft thunder.

She visits her brother’s grave, and while there, inquires of the Lord whether her brother, a lifelong atheist, has gone to Heaven. She feels the answer soon within her soul, and it is a very sad one. She weeps bitterly as the scene ends.

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Tags: funeral dirge, graveyard, modern opera, mourn, night, prayer, rain, sad, salvation, weep