Oldest Opera By A Black American Composer To Debut This Week

The recently re-discovered opera “Morgiane” by Edmond Dédé will debut in New York City next month. Dédé’s work may be the oldest opera written by a Black American.

Ear to the ground: This week, Opera Lafayette and OpéraCréole will debut their co-production of Edmond Dédé’s opera “Morgiane.” They will perform the entire opera in D.C., Maryland and at New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center following an excerpted production that premiered in New Orleans in January. Dédé’s 4-act opera was completed in 1887, yet it has never been fully staged or presented. The companies claim the work may be the oldest opera written by a Black American composer.

Digging deeper: Edmond Dédé was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1827. A free person of colour, Dédé was a recognized musician in New Orleans during his early life. In 1855, he moved to Bordeaux, France after mounting restrictions for Black people rendered a compositional career of the calibre he hoped insurmountable. In France, Dédé worked as a conductor to supplement his composing. He never saw his magnum opus, “Morgiane,” performed. Its manuscript was only recently discovered by a Harvard music cataloguer who purchased a collection of manuscripts from a Parisian music store.

As the music community reels from last month’s burning of one of Arnold Schoenberg’s archives in Los Angeles, the story of “Morgiane” offers a beacon of light. Let’s hope Dédé’s and other composers’ lost works may be heard in years to come.

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Sara Schabas

Sara Schabas is a Dora-nominated soprano, writer and yoga teacher. She has performed and created leading roles with companies including Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Dayton Opera, and Aspen Opera, and is a former member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. Currently based in Montreal, she is a doctoral student at McGill University — where she recently received the Wirth Vocal Prize — and editor of Art Song Canada magazine.