Detroit Opera will launch its long-awaited 2025–26 season with a rare pairing of two American works: William Grant Still’s “Highway 1, USA” and Kurt Weill’s “Down in the Valley.” Presented together under the title “Highways and Valleys— Two American Love Stories,” the double bill will run for three performances on Dec. 7, 11, and 13.

Both “Highway 1” and “Valley” are two one-act operas centered on working-class lives at the edges of American society— a theme that reflects the company’s season-long focus on America. Still, celebrated as the “dean of African American composers,” and Weill, a Jewish émigré, each drew inspiration from American folk traditions to create music that blended popular and classical idioms.

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