Down in the Valley (opera)

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Down in the Valley is an opera by composer Kurt Weill and librettist Arnold Sungaard, initially composed and conceived for the radio1945. It is an American Folk Opera- using famous American tunes to carry the story (a few being Down in the Valley, The Lonesome Dove, Hop Up, My Ladies) and connected by original choral music.

This short opera - there is hardly 30 minutes of music - was conceived in 1945 for radio; the idea for a series of such radio operas came from Olin Downes, the music critic of The New York Times, and a businessman named Charles McArthur. The radio idea eventually fell through for lack of a sponsor, but Weill was then commissioned to provide an opera for the Indiana University. He expanded and simplified Down in the Valley, and the revised version had its world premiere in Bloomington in 1948.

[edit] Synopsis

It tells a simple tale of a boy who falls in love with a girl after an Appalachian prayer meeting. But her father wants her to go to a dance not with the young man but with a shyster who the father thinks will bail him out of his money troubles.

At the dance, the villain gets drunk and threatens the hero with a knife. The two fight and the villain dies by his own weapon. One might think that with a barn-full of friendly witnesses, the boy would be exonerated in a simple case of self-defense; instead, he is condemned to be hanged. The father blocks all contact between the two lovers, so the boy breaks free for a last, loving rendezvous, before turning himself in to meet his fate.