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Although William Grant Still (1895-1978) enjoyed a successful career in the jazz and symphonic fields, his greatest desire was to become known as a successful operatic composer. As his wife, Verna Arvey, stated,
The big dream of Billy's [William Grant Still's] life had been to compose operas, the one form in which all other musical forms are combined, and the one form which offered full expression to his love for the theatre... He often felt that he had turned to writing symphonic works merely as a substitute for operas, in which form he couldn't get a hearing.1
As Arvey's statement alludes, Still was faced with many frustrations as he tried, often in vain, to secure productions for his operas. In fact, of the composer's eight completed operas, only three were performed during his lifetime. The first was Troubled Island, which was produced by New York's City Center Opera in 1949 after ten years of disappointment, mistrust, and arguments between the composer and the company. Still had aspirations of the opera paving the way for more of his works to be produced, but this hope did not materialize. In fact, he had to wait twenty-five long years to see another of his operas, A Bayou Legend, grace the stage of a major opera company, this time at the hands of Opera/South in Jackson, Mississippi. The third opera, Highway 1, USA, was not produced by a major company - it was premiered at the University of Miami on May 11, 1963.
It is certainly no secret that American opera companies have always tended to focus on European works and are often reluctant to premiere new works by American composers. Like composers of today, those in Still's time had an uphill battle to fight when it came to finding opportunities to have their operas produced; however, there were also some major strides made in the acceptance of American operas into the standard repertory. Through the vision of Julius Rudel, City Center Opera2 began to take a leading role in the production of American operas in the late 1950s, and foundations like the Ford Foundation began donating money to opera companies to produce American works. Unfortunately, many of the operas that were...