From
left, Rehanna Thelwell, Nicole Cabell, Will Liverman and Christian Mark
Gibbs rehearse for a rare production of William Grant Still’s “Highway
1, U.S.A.” at Opera Theater of St. Louis.
The
composer William Grant Still was a student of the renowned
experimentalist Edgard Varèse, an arranger for the blues icon W.C. Handy
and the creator of the enduringly winning
“Afro-American Symphony.” Thanks to his rich catalog of symphonic and
chamber music, Still, who died in 1978 at 83, was widely known as the
pathbreaking “dean” of Black American composers.
But
his operas have struggled to gain a foothold in the repertoire.
“Troubled Island,” about the Haitian revolution and its aftermath,
boasted a libretto by Langston Hughes and additional lyrics by Verna Arvey,
a writer who was married to Still. It premiered at New York City Opera
in 1949, but continues to wait for a second production. (A fascinating,
if scratchy, recording of the premiere can be purchased from the Still estate.)
Credit...Carl Van Vechten Collection/Getty Images
Still’s one-act stunner “Highway 1, U.S.A.,” premiered in 1963, has also
been a rarity. But it will enter the limelight this weekend with the
opening of a new staging, directed by Ron Himes, at Opera Theater of St.
Louis. (It runs there through June 17.)
In its two scenes — which together last under an hour — the
filling-station owner Bob and his wife, Mary, deal with the ingratitude
and arrogance of Bob’s younger brother, Nate, a spendthrift academic
whose studies were underwritten by the couple. The plot — its lurid
flights counterbalanced by the wholesome devotion of Bob and Mary —
swiftly deals with complex, compelling ideas about familial expectation
and duty.
Conducted by Leonard Slatkin, a veteran advocate for American music, and
featuring a cast of rising stars, the St. Louis production is an early
highlight of opera’s fledgling return to live performance as the
pandemic eases.
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