It's an opera by Robert Ward, born in 1917.  He studied at Eastman w/
Hanson as well as at Juilliard, whose faculty he joined.  In 1967, he
served as prsident, and later Chancellor of the North Carolina School
of Arts, stepping down in 1975 to become professor of composition there.
>From 1978 to 1987, he taught at Duke.  *The Crucible* was premiered in 1961
w/ the New York City Opera, winning the NY Drama Critics Citation and the
Pulitzer Prize.  Ward has also written six symphonies, three concerti and
other vocal and instrumental works.

I went to the opera because it was part of my season subscription.  It
wouldn't have occurred to me to attend it otherwise.

This story of the Salem witch trials at the end of the seventeenth century,
while mentioning the many other victims besides the protagonists who had
been caught in the witch-hunting web (there were nineteen executions in
all), we are given the story of only two, plus of one crushed to death for
refusing to identify informants.  Interestingly, the two hanged in the
opera were denounced by different parties for unrelated reasons.  John
Proctor was denounced by Abigail Williams, w/ whom he had had an affair,
after he sought to expose her earlier denunciation of his wife as a scheme
to enable her to marry him herself.  Rebecca Nurse, on the other hand, was
denounced by Thomas Putnam who lusted after her land, which would be
forfeited if she were to be hanged.  Whether or not the denunciation of the
other hanged victims were based upon similarly corrupt motives, is not
disclosed in the opera.

So what did I like about the opera? Well, for starters, the dialogue,
clarified in the surtitles even though the libretto was not Arthur Miller's
but by Dante scholar Bernard Stambler.  I also liked the scene change in
the third act from the open air, where Proctor tries to get Abigail to
recant her denuciation of Proctor's wife, to the town meeting house which
serves as a court room.  I'm no claustrophobe, but the closing in of the
walls defining the room, w/ the last panel descending to complete the rear
wall, thus shutting off all escape to the outside, was frighteningly
effective.  Kimm Julian, playing the part of John Proctor, was convincingly
authoritative.  And finally, I liked the slave Tituba's song at the
beginning of the last act, in the prison, about the devil's broken
promises.

As for the music otherwise, it seemed unobtrusively appropriate, like well
written film music.  Except for Tituba's song (sung by Annette Daniels),
and a hymn in the first act, all of the words could have been spoken as
well as sung as far as I was concerned.  The work simply did not seem
musical to me.

Walter Meyer