William Grant Still / Verna Arvey (1941)

Based on an American folk legend, a Christian community turns on a man accused of speaking with spirits.

In 2023, William Grant Still, Jr. experienced a renaissance. In March 2023 alone, Boston Symphony Orchestra programmed Still’s Symphony no. 1, Afro-American, and the New York Philharmonic programmed his Symphony no. 2, Song of a New Race. A pioneer figure in American music, Still is finally getting the attention he deserves.

During his lifetime, Still was a man of many firsts. Afro-American was the first orchestral work by a Black composer to be performed by a major American orchestra (Rochester Philharmonic, 1930). Still himself was the first Black conductor of a major American orchestra when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 1936. He became the first African-American composer to have his opera produced by an American company in 1949 when New York City Opera premiered Troubled Island. Langston Hughes wrote the libretto for Troubled Island along with Still’s wife, Verna Arvey. Arvey provided the texts for many of Still’s compositions, including A Bayou Legend.

The history of A Bayou Legend spotlights both Black creatives and Black producers. Musicians and educators from three historically black schools in the Jackson area — Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, and Utica Junior College — joined together in 1971 to form the Mississippi Inter-Collegiate Opera Guild and its producing arm, Opera/South. The company served to provide artistic opportunities for young Black artists, increase professional experience for students, and to bring opera to new audiences. In its first three years, the company gained international attention for its productions of classic repertoire (including Aida and Turandot) as well as works by Black composers (Still’s Highway 1, U.S.A. and The Juggler of Our Lady by Ulysses Kay).

In 1974, Opera/South premiered A Bayou Legend, 33 years after Still completed the piece. The production was so successful that the company mounted a second, new production of it in 1976. In 1979, Opera/South partnered with Mississippi Educational Television, the state’s PBS affiliate, for a television production filmed in the Mississippi bayou. When A Bayou Legend aired in 1981, it became the first opera by an African-American to be presented on national television, and the first nationally-televised opera to feature an all-Black cast.

Speaking of the cast, the production included some significant talents, including soprano Carmen Balthrop as the spirit woman Aurore. Balthrop won the Met competition in 1975 and performed the title role of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha at Houston Grand Opera and on Broadway. She passed away in 2021. Tenor Gary Burgess carried the lead role of Bazile and had credits with the Met, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand, and more. François Clemmons, who went on to play Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, had a secondary role.

Based on an authentic folk legend, the piece centers on a Black Christian community in 19th century Southern Mississippi. The community’s leader, Father Lestant, warns the churchgoers of the dangers of communing with spirits, but one man in the congregation has done just that. Bazile has fallen in love with Aurore, a spirit who reciprocates his love and awaits his arrival in the afterlife. But Clothilde is also in love with Bazile, and when she discovers Bazile talking to mysterious voices in the night, she threatens to expose him if he does not marry her. Bazile has no interest in Clothilde, so Clothilde tells the townspeople, who lynch him.

It’s this act of mob violence that makes the piece highly relevant today. Though he preaches against conversing with spirits, Father Lestant insists that Bazile face a trial by jury; instead, the town overrules Lestant and acts solely based on Clothilde’s accusations. We’ve seen in our own country the dangers of a sole individual making unfounded claims and spurring a crowd into a violent rage, disregarding any rules or sense of justice. A Bayou Legend illustrates our national drama on a micro scale, leaving the audience to ponder how they might have acted in the moment and what could happen next.

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