Minutes Till Midnight (Piano/Vocal Score)
by Robert Ward
Choir - Sheet Music

Opera in 3 Acts for mixed voices (2(1.2/Pic) 2(1.2/EH) 21.2/(BCl) 2(1.2/CBsn) - 4 2 2 0 - P - T - H - Str)

SKU: EC.VP0021

Composed by Robert Ward. Full Length Opera. 20th Century. Piano/vocal score. E.C. Schirmer Publishing #VP0021. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.VP0021).

Text: Daniel Lang.

Libretto:
Written by Daniel Lang

Synopsis:
Opera in 3 Acts. A modern morality story in which the conscience of a nuclear physicist is put to the extreme test. Emil Roszak and his young protégé, Chris Jessup, are struggling to complete the formula which will harness cosmic energy. With the taming of such enormous power, they imagine a future of flowering deserts, the total conquest of disease, and the dawn of a new era of unlimited space exploration.

Against this Utopian background, an old friend, Amory Dexter, now the Secretary of Science, visits Roszak and his wife, Margo, bearing an invitation from the President of the United States to come to Washington. There, at a meeting of the National Security Council, Roszak is asked to head a crash program utilizing his formula to develop a cosmic bomb and thus gain for the military great advantage over the “enemy.” Fired by patriotic considerations, Roszak returns to his university laboratory to complete the formula for this purpose. But a series of events — a heart attack, the death of Chris in a violent anti-war demonstration, and recurring visions of the bomb’s holocaust — arouse Roszak’s conscience. He sends the formula to an international science journal, allowing the world to decide its fate.

Roles:
Emil Roszak, world-renowned scientist in his late fifties	Baritone
Chris Jessup, Emil's protégé in his twenties	Tenor
Julie Day, Emil's assistant and Chris' girl friend	Soprano
Margo Roszak, Emil's wife in her early fifties	Mezzo-Soprano
Amory Dexter, Secretary of Science, in his late fifties	Bass-Baritone
Minor Roles combine to form Mixed Chorus
Small Group of Dancers