Highways and Valleys – Two American Love Stories

is a unique double bill combining voices often excluded from the operatic mainstream: the “dean of African American music,” William Grant Still, and the Jewish émigré Kurt Weill. From their marginalized positions in American society, both composers sought out the heart of American folk music and brought it into the world of opera.

Highway 1, USA

Composed in the 1940s, Highway 1, USA is a distinctly American story of ordinary people aspiring for the “American dream.” Still’s work celebrates the Black experience in an engaging musical voice, portraying how African American culture is central to the sound of our national identity.

The kitchen of a modest house attached to a gas station is the unassuming setting of what The New York Times hailed as a “one-act stunner” from William Grant Still. The home belongs to Bob and Mary, who run the filling station and support Bob’s younger brother, Nate. But each sees that support, and its limits, very differently, resulting in a harrowing event that throws into question the nature of family, responsibility, success, and the American Dream.

Down in the Valley

Weill’s “folk opera in one act” Down in the Valley was originally written for the radio at the same time Still was composing his reflection of Black life. Weaving together American folk songs and original choruses, Weill’s engagement with the music of his adopted homeland reflects the search for belonging among immigrant communities.

Down in the Valley weaves several traditional American songs into a tragic tale of love and loss. It begins and ends in a Birmingham jail cell on the eve of the execution of Brack—a teenage boy convicted of murdering the man who tried to take Jennie, Brack’s beloved, away from him. Told partly in flashback, this simple story of ill-fated romance and shattered innocence is as timeless as it is universal.