Detroit Opera has opened its new season with a double bill, titled "Highways & Valley" two American love stories.

The production includes the works of two composers, Jewish emigre, Kurt Weill, and William Grant Still, who is often referred to as the dean of African American music.

Weill's opera is called "Down in the Valley" and Still's work is named "Highway 1 USA".

Both works combine the heart of American folk music with opera.

Here's a clip from the LA Opera's production of William Grant Still's piece, followed by my conversation with his granddaughter, Celeste Headlee.

♪ This conceit will destroy (singer singing indistinctly) ♪ Oh I hate him, hate him, hate him ♪ ♪ I hate him ♪ For the suffering he's caused ♪ ♪ For the suffering he's caused ♪ - Celeste Headlee, great to see you.

- Good to see you as well.

- Welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

It's great to be here.

- Yeah, no, this is a really great occasion to talk about, of course, William Grant still and the opera that's gonna be performed here at the opening of our opera season.

But I have to say, I didn't know of your personal connection to this.

And so that's kind of an extra delight for this interview.

So let's start there.

William Grant Still, who was he and who is he to you?

- Well, I'll answer the second one first, which is he's my grandfather and was my favorite person in the whole world.

I actually didn't realize he was famous until he passed away.

I just thought he was the world's greatest grandfather.

But to the world, he was of course the Dean of African American composers.

- [Stephen] Yes.

- [Celeste] And the reason he's called the dean is because if you check out the number of firsts, the first, you know, black composer due to this, it's long.

It's a long list.

So he opened a lot of doors in classical music, not just for black composers, but any composers of color.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And let's talk about this particular piece, "Highway 1 USA" and the message that it is trying to get across to us.

And let's talk about that message in 2025.

America, of course, this is written much, much longer ago, in a different era in America, but maybe not in such a different America.

- No, I mean, if you think about it, I think he's began composition on this piece in 1941.

Someone's gonna correct me on that if I'm wrong, but if you think about what was happening at that time in the world, not all that far removed from the Great Depression.

He himself served during World War I. Of course, the world was, again, embroiled in another conflict.

But in terms for him, there was a lot going on in the nation as well.

I mean, racially, it was a very fraught time.

When he came back for World War I, he was one of the many black soldiers who encountered more rage and violence if they were wearing the uniform, right?

So here comes another world war in which black soldiers are being asked to serve and knowing full well that they would not be greeted by a grateful nation.

So there was all this turmoil happening economically, obviously militarily, but also racially as well.

He was also personally in an odd place because he had gone through a very tumultuous and unhappy first marriage.

It was not until he fell in love, he remained married, but it wasn't until he fell in love with my grandmother and decided to get married in 1939 and she said, "You need to get divorced."

- How about we take care of that, first.

- Yeah.

So I mean, she had run off, his first wife had run off to Canada with another man years before, you know, but he had gone through this dramatic, relatively rancorous divorce as well.

So he's coming outta this personal romantic turmoil as well, which you also see reflected in this opera.

- Yeah, yeah.

The imagery just in the title I think is important too.

Highway 1.

This is a nation that is built on the backs of highways and comes up around the idea of travel, of the ability to sort of start your life in one place and maybe conclude it, and in another, talk about the importance of that in the story here, this great American sort of iconography of the highway and travel.

- You know, it's interesting you should say that.

My grandfather loved to drive, and he drove all across, you know, when he was getting his honorary doctorate at Oberlin, he drove all the way from Los Angeles to Oberlin, Ohio.

They weren't allowed to stay at any hotels.

- Right.

- They couldn't stay at any black hotels 'cause he was black, he couldn't stay at black hotels 'cause his wife was Jewish, couldn't stay at white hotels 'cause he of course was black.

So the photos of him at Oberlin, at the festivities, he looks exhausted, but he drove a lot.

He was also a lead foot.

He was a veteran speeder.

Got a speeding ticket, coming back from Tijuana on his wedding night and ended up in jail.

So he loved the highway anyway.

But there is this sense, especially in terms of this opera, there is this sense of what we pass by so carelessly when we're on the highway.

- Hmm, hmm.

- Right?

The lives that are occurring in these towns that we just zip through.

You know, a highway is a lot of things, right?

It can bring business to a community.

It means access and mobility, but also it allows you to zip right by these human dramas that are happening, in this case, literally right on the side of the road.

And again, this is one of those things where, whomever the director, the interpreter of this opera can choose which one of these threads to pull out.

And I think this is a really important one.

And as you say, it's the name of the opera for good reason, right?

Like, the highways are both a tremendous boon to communities, but they also can destroy.

- They destroy.

- And especially for African Americans, they can destroy neighborhoods.

I mean, who knows that better than the people of Detroit, - Yes.

- That in making way for a highway, there's a lot of destruction.

So there's all kinds of things that are sort of wrapped up in just that word, highway.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

The twin performance, I guess here will be of Anthony Wiles down in Kurt Wiles, down in "The Valley."

Talk about that opera and the pairing of these two.

- You know, it's interesting.

I have to assume, you know, grandfather originally wrote this and it was premiered at a university.

And in universities, of course, operas aren't always paired with another opera.

- Right.

- Right?

- Sometimes they're alone, but for the most part, in the professional field, as you and I know, they make a full evening about it by pairing it with something else, some other one act opera.

And I think it's interesting that they've chosen our lives from down in the valley because there's this connection to the folk.

Right, there's this connection to the people, down in the valley.

There's this connection to, it's accessible music.

This is not opera that is intended to oppress you.

It's intended to make you feel resonance, - Yeah.

- To make you feel as though you're seen on stage.

I think that's true of both operas, wouldn't you?

- Yeah.

- And I think both of these operas were written very much with the audience in mind.

You know, these aren't, you know, some high, I'm not trying to put down any opera.

They're all great.

- Sure.

Sure, but it can be obscure.

- Right, these aren't written to as a pure expression of somebody's art or, you know, to impress a music critic.

Both of these operas were very much written for each of those people sitting in the seats and intended to reach you, to touch you, to speak to you, to make you feel seen.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And so I think it's actually a pretty brilliant pairing.

- And well, the storytelling aspect of both of those is also very key to not only opera, but of course the African American tradition of messaging through powerful story.

I think there's something important about that in both of these as well.

- Yeah, I agree with that.

And, you know, the story is even more important in a one act opera than in a full length, right?

- That's right.

You better get it right.

- I can't remember which author said it, but he wrote a letter and said, "This letter would be shorter, but I didn't have enough time."

Right?

I mean, grandfather was never Mahler.

He was never gonna write anything that was hours and hours and hours long.

But it's so much harder in a one act opera because you need to care about those characters immediately when that curtain goes up, and the story needs to grip you immediately.

And if it has a message, like both of these have, that message needs to be clear.

There can't be ambiguous storytelling.

It all needs to feed into the story.

You know, I remember one of my editors used to say that in journalism, the story's like a shark.

It has to keep moving forward or it dies.

- Yeah.

- And I feel the same way, especially about these two operas, like they keep moving forward.

They are impelled for, driven to that final note.

I think in both of these operas, one of the things that makes them so beautifully paired is that in both of these operas, even though the subject matter is serious, - Yes.

- You know, the stakes are high, obviously life or death.

But there's also, I don't feel anxious.

You know what I mean?

I don't feel terrified, I guess.

This isn't making my head hurt, in ways that sometimes other operas can.

- Why do you think that is?

- I mean, so, I mean, think about the differences, just incredible differences between the two composers, between Kurt Weill and William Grant Steel.

They could not be more different.

At the same time, think about the similarities.

These are two composers who had a strong background in popular music, who were never snobby about that label, classical music, right?

- Yeah.

- They felt that classical music was as much belonged to the people in the penny seats as it did to the people in the lounge.

So these are two people who kept the music in such a way that it had a landscape, right?

It gives you respite, and then takes you up and then takes you down.

And it moves you in such a way that, I don't feel in either of these pieces that I'm ever trapped.

You know what I mean?

I'm not stuck, - Yeah.

- You know, without a breath.

I guess that's the thing.

These operas both breathe.

They give you some breath.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's a great way to end the interview and the stories about your grandfather.

Celeste Headlee, it was really, really great to have you here with us on "American Black Journal."

Thanks for joining us.

- It was my pleasure.

Thank you so much.