Defending Her Choices

A Fiery Heiress Defies A Killer

An Opera in Two Acts

Composer and Librettist:

Randall Shinn

(Libretto complete, Music nearly complete.)

Duration: c. 115 minutes.

Audio Samples: Voices and Piano

Orchestra: 2121 2210 1perc strings

Notes: In 1895 a young heiress, Emma Wingate, travels west to visit her uncle, who is marshal of a Western boomtown. At a dance, she sees her uncle try to arrest train robber Victor Ralston. Ralston outdraws her uncle and kills him.

She inherits her uncle’s modest ranch with its view of the mountains, and she loves living there. However, Ralston knows Emma won shooting contests as a teenager and becomes obsessed with her. He believes her fate is to become his partner in crime. He tries to woo her, and later, he threatens to abduct her if he has to. Furious, Emma vows to kill him if he tries.

If she stays on her ranch, she faces Victor’s ongoing threats. If she returns to her property in Pittsburgh, she leaves behind both the ranch and her growing interest in Doctor Diego De La Rosa, a well-regarded bachelor.

Diego urges her to return East until Ralston is dead or in prison. Emma refuses, even though staying could result in a showdown with Ralston.