A spokesperson describes the event as follows:
"... This unique double bill is composed of two one act American operas rarely seen in New York City and never before seen together. Highway 1, U.S.A., by African American composer William Grant Still, premiered in 1963 and is based upon a libretto by his wife Verna Arvey, a daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. Down in the Valley, by German immigrant Kurt Weill, premiered in 1948 and is based upon a libretto by first generation playwright Arnold Sundgaard. The two iconic composers and their librettists, with their varied backgrounds, sought to merge classical European and populist American music traditions to create a new kind of hybrid operatic form that is uniquely American..."
