I Dream a World: The Operas of William Grant Still (review)

Beverly Soll's I Dream a World: The Operas of William Grant Still is not a standard anecdotal biography of a relatively obscure African American composer. This is not a book that dispassionately chronicles the events of its subject's life, his successes and failures, his foibles and eccentricities. Nor is it a ponderous psychological study. Rather than setting out to write a comprehensive biography, she approaches the life of William Grant Still primarily as it relates to his music, concentrating on the close relationship between Still and his operas. In Soll's words, "[The book] explores the stories behind the operas, stories that reflect his own life, philosophies, and struggles as a man of African descent in the social milieu of twentieth-century America" (p. xi).

While Still composed a good deal of instrumental music, much of which has enjoyed a gratifying number of performances through the years, his greatest passion was opera. But it was in this arena that he suffered a lifetime of disappointment. Only four of his eight operas have been staged with fully produced performances. Although only a relatively few twentieth-century American composers of any ethnicity have ever seen their operas produced even once, Still was certain that, in his case, the prevailing racial prejudice exacerbated the neglect he experienced. He wrote his operas between 1934 and 1958, well before the civil rights movement gained its greatest momentum, and there is ample evidence to support his belief. Scattered within his diaries and letters are expressions of disillusionment and anger over what he sometimes believed was a conspiracy against him: "There are in these United States too many who think it only right for me to be denied the right to live. They connive to stop performances of my work . . ." (p. 26). After he failed again to have one of his operas performed (Troubled Island ), his diary entry lamented, "Discouraged. . . . When will my operas be produced? God, please help me" (p. 25). This opera was eventually produced eight years later by New York's City Center Opera. Ironically, the most overt show of bigotry came from the reviewers of the Troubled Island premiere. There is evidence that the critics conspired to pan the opera in spite of the audience's enthusiastic reception. The reviews took no issue with the fact that this black man was moralizing about good and evil in his opera, nor did they criticize him harshly for not conforming to the current rage of atonality. Instead, the criticism was contrived in ways simply to show that a black composer had no place in the opera world. It was Still's belief that this conspiracy went on unabated for the remainder of his life.

In spite of his disappointments, Still relentlessly continued composing operas, always hoping the next one would find favor. His collaboration with Harlem Renaissance author Langston Hughes ended after the completion of Troubled Island, Still's second opera, because of the geographical distance between them, Hughes's lack of musical ability and understanding, and differences over how the libretto should be written. Still's wife, Verna Arvey, a Jewish concert pianist and journalist, became his librettist and collaborator in the compositional process, and together they shaped the story of each opera in the way he envisioned. Even though Still had his detractors, mainly members of the critical press, many others—Howard Hanson and Leopold Stokowski among them—recognized him as a thoroughly worthy composer.

Soll has produced a scholarly and eminently readable book devoid of unnecessary flowery language and random judgmental comment. Separate sections and chapters deal with such subjects as Still's operas in the context of twentieth-century America, his compositional process, the structural and musical aspects of his operas, the development of his characters, and the roles of chorus and orchestra. A large section—almost half the book—is devoted to the research, composition, and performance history of Still's operas.

Much of the uniqueness of Still's operas...