Baltimore audiences will get a rare chance to see two landmark works of Black American music on the same stage this month, as Opera at Morgan stages a double bill pairing William Grant Still's “Highway 1, U.S.A.” with Duke Ellington's “Queenie Pie.” Performances are set for November 19, 20 and 22 at Morgan State University's Murphy Fine Arts Center.
The pairing brings together two composers in a double bill celebrating two American musical legends, according to CBS News. Marquita Lister directs the opera program at Morgan State.
Two Works, Two Very Different Histories
“Highway 1, U.S.A.” and “Queenie Pie” arrive at this double bill from very different places in American musical history. Still, often called the dean of African American composers, wrote operas, while Ellington's “Queenie Pie” grew out of the bandleader's ambitions for television. Opera at Morgan pairs Still's “Highway 1, U.S.A.” with Ellington's “Queenie Pie” this fall.
Ellington's opera has a famously unfinished history. According to program notes cited by KQED from a 2008 Oakland Opera Theater production, Ellington completed roughly 95 percent of the melodies and lyrics, about 25 percent of a piano score, and no orchestration before his death, leaving later companies to restore and supplement the work. That Oakland production, staged at the Oakland Metro Operahouse, framed “Queenie Pie” as a live television studio production in keeping with Ellington's original plan to develop the piece with public television station WNET in New York, per KQED. The Oakland staging featured the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra with orchestration by Marc Bolin, KQED reported at the time.
A Student Program With Two Decades of Staged Productions
Opera at Morgan, formerly known as Morgan State University Opera, has offered students performance opportunities since 2004, presenting fully staged productions as well as concerts with piano and orchestra, according to the program's own account on msuopera.org. The November run pairs the two works.
Ticketmaster lists the November 20 double bill at 7:30 p.m.
The three-date run brings the Still and Ellington double bill to the Murphy Fine Arts Center this month.
