FULL DOWN IN THE VALLEY (Kurt Weill) Sevenoaks 2025 Kitchen Youth Opera Company
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Down in the Valley
- Composer: Weill Kurt
- Libretto: Arnold Sundgaard Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: The Stag Theatre, Sevenoaks, UK, Kitchen Youth Opera Company
- Recorded: March 16, 2025
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: unknown
- Conductor: unknown
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Kitchen Youth Opera Company
- Date Published: 2025
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Down in the Valley is a folk-opera in one act by composer Kurt Weill and librettist Arnold Sundgaard, initially composed and conceived for the radio in 1945 then rewritten and produced in 1948. It uses famous American tunes to carry the story (including “Down in the Valley”, “The Lonesome Dove”, and “Hop Up, My Ladies”) and connected by original choral music.
Synopsis
The action begins in a jail the night before an execution and is told in flashback form.
Brack Weaver, a teenager, falls in love with a girl, Jennie, after an Appalachian prayer meeting, but her father wants her to go to a dance with his shyster creditor, Thomas Bouché, who the father thinks will bail him out of his money troubles. Jennie disobeys and goes to the dance with Brack.
At the dance, the villain gets drunk and threatens the hero with a knife. The two fight, the villain dies (by his own weapon), and Brack is condemned to be hanged. On the night before his execution, he escapes to spend his last hours with Jennie, before turning himself in to meet his fate.