A double-bill featuring two rarely seen operas will open Detroit Opera’s 2025-26 season. Highways and Valleys—Two American Love Stories brings to the stage William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA and Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley. Performances will take place at the Detroit Opera House on Sunday, Dec. 7, Thursday, Dec.11, and Saturday, Dec.13.
Set in the kitchen of a modest house attached to a gas station, the story focuses on Bob and Mary, who run the filling station and support Bob’s younger brother, Nate. When a harrowing event occurs, it throws into question the very nature of family, responsibility, success, and the American Dream. This working-class love story celebrates the Black experience in an engaging musical voice, portraying how African American culture is central to the sound of America’s national identity.
“When I first listened to Highway 1, USA, I kept getting swept off my feet into the strings, running around in my mind in a film score,” says director Kaneza Schaal. “It’s the same swell and release of Wagner, or Verdi, or Puccini. And in fact, that film score in my mind, that sound was built in studios in Hollywood by musicians who had played all those works and fled in exile to dream a new world. This production is set in Still’s imagination, his own dream of what was possible for Americans, for music, for the future.”
Jewish émigré Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley is a one-act folk opera that 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 story of ill-fated romance and shattered innocence is as timeless as it is universal. This is a new production by Detroit Opera, featuring a monumental backdrop by production designer Christopher Myers. Costume designer Charlese Antoinette (Judas and the Black Messiah) has the cast in denim and workwear that honors Detroit’s labor legacy.
The double bill features an all Black cast and several returning artists. Director Kaneza Schaal — winner of a 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, who previously staged Detroit Opera’s production of Blue in 2021— returns to direct both operas.
Tickets are available at the box office (1526 Broadway Street), by phone (313.237.7464), or at www.detroitopera.org. $25 tickets for Detroit residents are available using the promo code DETROIT via this link.
Highways and Valleys—Two American Love Stories
Music Director Roberto Kalb will conduct. Also returning is soprano Nicole Heaston (Armida, Rinaldo, 2025), mezzo-soprano Rehanna Thelwell (Forester’s Wife/Owl, The Cunning Little Vixen, 2024), tenor Victor Ryan Robertson (Elijah Muhammad, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, 2022), bass-baritone Davóne Tines (title role, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, 2022, and Europeras 4, 2024), and baritone Babatunde Akinboboye (Valentin, Faust, 2022, and Matias Reyes/Raymond’s Father, The Central Park Five, 2025). Baritone and native Detroiter Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews will make his Detroit Opera debut as Sheriff (Highway 1 USA) / Preacher (Down in the Valley).
Performances are set for: Sunday, Dec. 7, 2:30 p.m.; Thursday, Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.
Run time is two hours with one intermission.
Conductor: Roberto Kalb; Director: Kaneza Schaal; Production Designer: Christopher Myers; Scenic Designer: Amy Rubin; Lighting Designer: Pablo Santiago.
Down in the Valley
Music by Kurt Weill; Libretto by Arnold Sundgaard; Jennie: Nicole Heaston (soprano); Brack Weaver: Victor Ryan Robertson (tenor); Leader: Babatunde Akinboboye (baritone); Thomas Bouché: Davóne Tines (bass-baritone); Preacher: Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews (baritone); Jennie’s Father: Brian Marable (actor)
Highway 1, USA
Music by William Grant Still; Libretto by Verna Arvey; Mary: Nicole Heaston (soprano); Bob: Davóne Tines (bass-baritone); Nate: Victor Ryan Robertson (tenor); Aunt Lou: Rehanna Thelwell (mezzo-soprano); Sheriff: Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews (baritone).
For more information, visit the Detroit Opera website here. Follow the company on Facebook and Instagram (@DetroitOpera) and LinkedIn (Detroit Opera).
Source: Detroit Opera
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