<\/p>\n
With Highways and Valleys<\/em> opening the opera season in Detroit, two rarely performed American operas are brought to the fore. Knit together by an exploration of love and Americana in a double bill, the pairing offers a spotlight on the small-town stories often overlooked by the genre.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a story gets told in an operatic context, it\u2019s like you\u2019re honoring that thing,\u201d says bass-baritone Dav\u00f3ne Tines of the two works.<\/p>\n Following a tenure as Detroit Opera\u2019s first Artist-in-Residence\u2014and company roles in 2022\u2019s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X<\/em>, 2024\u2019s Europeras 4<\/em>\u2014Tines returns to the stage in dual roles \u2013 villainous businessman Thomas Bouch\u00e9 in Kurt Weill\u2019s Down in the Valley<\/em> and Bob, an earnest family man in William Grant Still\u2019s Highway 1, USA<\/em>.<\/p>\n The undeniable thread connecting both works is love, poignantly explored and examined through the lens of an all-Black cast. \u201cThere are many ways to talk about a culture beyond its resilience against another culture,\u201d Tines says in reflection of this observation. \u201cAnd I\u2019m happy that we are telling stories that take Blackness and our everyday experience on its own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t fight the fight just to be fighting,\u201d he says. \u201cWe fight so that we can have peace and love and joy. Uplifting those aspects of our identity is just as important.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s this peace, love, and joy that audiences get to reckon with in Highway 1, USA<\/em>, which opens with sharply dressed Br\u2019er Fox and Br\u2019er Rabbit masked characters posed under a tall streetlight.<\/em> Still, often called the \u201cDean of African American composers,\u201d delivers a timeless one-act peek behind the curtains of a working-class home on the brink of a collapsing American dream. The specter that haunts them writes home from college and eventually takes up residence in their spare bedroom. Through Kaneza Schaal\u2019s direction and a dynamic retro kitsch set by Christopher Myers, the love story of Bob and Mary emerges triumphant beneath towering billboards that sell marketing-made dreams of the American way.<\/p>\n On the other side of the bill, German-born Jewish composer Kurt Weill\u2019s Down in the Valley<\/em> plays out like folklore pulp, serving up a quick and passionate tale of young love gone awry in the Deep South. Its serious tone is bookended and punctuated with soulful dialogue spoken into an old-fashioned microphone for a tube radio story hour effect.<\/p>\n Notably, newcomer and Detroit native Lawrence Mitchell-Matthews, a baritone, makes his Detroit Opera debut embodying morality as the justice-minded Sheriff in Highway 1, USA<\/em>, and as the pious Preacher in Down in the Valley<\/em>. Lastly, tying everything together is costume designer Charlese Antoinette, who wields the power of fabric (mostly denim) and hue (muted tones of blue and soft ranges of violet) to tell a clothing story of authenticity and workwear as a hat tip to Detroit\u2019s working-class labor roots.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that Detroit shows up to see itself reflected inside the house,\u201d says Tines.<\/p>\n Highways and Valleys<\/em> is playing at Detroit Opera through Dec. 13. Tickets are available at\u00a0<\/span>DetroitOpera.org<\/a>. $25 City of Detroit Resident Rush Tickets are available at the box office the week of the show. Visit\u00a0<\/span>DetroitOpera.org\/Discounts<\/a>\u00a0for details.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n