Robert Ward, grand old man of American opera and a major figure in North Carolina music since the 1960s, has died. Ward passed early Wednesday morning at his apartment in a Durham retirement home, after a period of failing health. He was 95 years old. Ward remains best-known for composing the music to the opera version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962. He also wrote another seven operas, seven symphonies and numerous choral works and chamber-music pieces. But composition was only half of Ward’s legacy. The other half was his contribution to music education,...