Kurt Weill and William Grant Still broke barriers during their storied careers as composers in the early 20th century, captivating audiences with their music through concerts, operas and film. 

But their successes in the entertainment industry didn’t come without adversity, with the two enduring antisemitism and racism along the way. Weill, who was Jewish, was forced to leave his native Germany in the 1930s when he found out he was on the Nazi blacklist. He and his wife initially moved to France before settling in the United States. 

Meanwhile, Still, who was Black, was facing racism in his own country, being denied access to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, despite writing a song for the exhibition. 

The obstacles the composers faced, as well as the themes of family, love and the American Dream in their works, are similar. So, it’s fitting that Detroit Opera is opening its 2025-26 season with the double bill, “Highways and Valleys –– Two American Love Stories.” The production, which premieres Sunday, will pair Weill’s 1948 folk-opera, “Down in the Valley” with Still’s 1963 opera, “Highway 1, USA.” The production will also have performances on Dec. 11 and 13. The back mezzanine and mezzanine sections for all three shows are not available, but tickets are still available in other areas of the theater, beginning at $30. And Detroit residents can purchase tickets for $25. 

“Highway and Valleys” director Kaneza Schaal noticed those similarities between Weill and Still and is excited to show their works together. 

“There’s something about holding these two composers who were deeply invested in thinking about American music and who really understood that as inherently a process of understanding margins,” she told BridgeDetroit. “It’s very meaningful to have them side by side. I’m thrilled by this double bill.” 

“Down in the Valley” weaves several traditional American songs, such as “Down in the Valley” and “The Lonesome Dove” into a tale of tragedy. The one-act opera takes place 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 girlfriend, away from him.

“Highway 1, USA” is about a Black family aspiring for the American Dream. The kitchen of a modest house attached to a gas station is the setting of the opera, which belongs to Bob and Mary. They run the gas station and support Bob’s younger brother, Nate. But each sees that support, and its limits, very differently, resulting in a harrowing event that changes everything. 

While the operas feature completely different characters and situations, they both focus on working-class people in America, said costume designer Charlese Antoinette. 

“And they’re both stories about love and loss,” she said. “They’re also distinctly American stories, so I think the pairing of them is really great.” 

Swept away by the music 

“Highways and Valleys” marks Schaal’s second time working with Detroit Opera. In 2021, the New York City-based artist directed the opera, “Blue,” about a Harlem family who are at odds when a politically active son begins questioning his dad’s profession as a New York police officer. 

For her current show, Schaal was already familiar with Still’s work. She directed a production of “Highway 1, USA,” with the LA Opera in 2023. One of the things that attracted Schaal to the opera was the music itself, in particular, the strings. 

“When I first started listening to ‘Highway 1, USA,’ I kept getting swept off my feet into the strings and it started to feel like a 1950s film score,” she said. 

Schaal added that the opera flips the idea of morality on its head by creating these complex characters who don’t always do the right thing. 

“The audiences who have historically been disinvited to opera houses are the audiences who are most equipped to understand the music, audiences for whom the struggle of living is operatic daily.”

Director Kaneza Schaal

“We’re invited to consider the kind of competing dreams and the different versions of an America they might birth that exist in all of the characters in that opera,” she said. “Even though the text of ‘Highway 1, USA’ reads as a kind of morality lesson, the music invites us into these really complex understandings of all of the characters.” 

Schaal also has the task of directing the singers, the majority of them performing dual roles. The all-Black cast includes Nicole Heaston as Mary in “Highway 1” and Jennie in “Down in the Valley”; Davóne Tines as Bob and Thomas; Victor Ryan Robertson as Nate and Brack; and Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews as a sheriff and preacher. 

“The invitation into these exquisite singers’ storytelling and musical vocabularies is going to be so fun, and we get to watch them do more than one thing over the course of the evening,” Schaal said. 

The director said she hopes people seeing “Highways and Valleys” resonate with the stories and feel a personal connection to them. Schaal also wants to see audience members who don’t normally attend an opera. 

“Please come, we’re gonna take good care of you,” she said. “The audiences who have historically been disinvited to opera houses are the audiences who are most equipped to understand the music, audiences for whom the struggle of living is operatic daily. So, the music needs you.” 

Storytelling through fashion  

Reconnecting with Schaal is Antoinette, who also worked on LA Opera’s production of “Highway 1, USA.” The Los Angeles designer has known Schaal and “Highways and Valleys” production designer Christopher Myers for years, and they asked her to be part of the Detroit production. 

Antoinette has mostly created costumes for films like “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Air,” and “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” When she lived in New York, she used to feel intimidated by the costume designers who worked on Broadway because she felt she had to be a certain type of designer. Now, Antoinette realizes that was silly. 

“I never thought I would be designing opera,” she said. “I like fashion, I like designing, I like telling stories and so, the stage is kinda a new format for me. I’m really honored that I get to expand in this way.” 

Since “Highway 1, USA” is set in California, Antoinette said she’s been having fun playing with costumes that match the desert landscape and sunsets. One of them is an outfit worn by Mary, which features a white shirt with red and orange flowers and an orange, floral-patterned skirt. 

Some of the material Antoinette received for “Highways and Valleys” came from local companies Carhartt and Detroit Fabric Company, she said. 

“I wanted to play around with the pattern mixing of florals, play around with the silhouettes of the time and really accentuate her curves,” Antoinette said. “I wanted the performer to feel good in her costume and in her body and have everything be super flattering. It was a lot of math and science in getting the skirt to drape the way that we wanted it to drape.” 

For “Down in the Valley,” the costumes are built around life in Alabama in the 1940s and 1950s and the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers, a group of Black women and their ancestors from the Gee’s Bend area of Alabama’s rural Black Belt, whose quilts have become a significant part of American folk and art history. 

“…They’re both small-town vibes. What do people wear in places that are very insular and are forgotten by the outside world?”

Costume designer Charlese Antoinette

“They’re both these really interesting working-class stories just staged in different ways,” Antoinette said. “And also, they’re both small-town vibes. What do people wear in places that are very insular and are forgotten by the outside world?” 

Antoinette hopes her costumes inspire audience members and help them understand the characters right away. 

“And it celebrates my love of American workwear, denim and fashion from these quintessential time periods in American style between the 1940s, 50s and 60s,” she said. “I hope people see both pieces as a celebration of all that.”