OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette present Edmond Dédé’s the never-performed work “Morgiane.”

Only recently discovered, “Morgiane” is believed to be the earliest extant complete opera by a Black American. The world premiere is presented in a concert version by Mary Elizabeth Williams, Kenneth Kellogg, Chauncey Packer, Joshua Conyers, Jonathan Woody, along with members of Opera Creole chorus. The Opera Lafayette Orchestra performs on modern and historical instruments. Opera Lafayette’s Artistic Director Designate Patrick Quigley conducts.

Edmond Dédé, a fourth-generation free person of color born in 1827 in New Orleans had a successful career as a conductor and composer in Bordeaux, France. There, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and wrote nearly 100 critically and popularly acclaimed works for the French stage. His magnum opus, “Morgiane” had yet to receive a premiere at the time of his death, and languished, unrecognized, in private collections and libraries for over a century. The manuscript was eventually discovered at the Harvard Memorial Library in 2010.

Part of the work of bringing Dédé’s work to the stage has required transcribing the 1887 handwritten manuscript into modern, 21st century musical notation, translating the libretto from French into English, and creating the first-ever performing scores for vocalists and orchestra members. Quigley and OperaCréole’s Founder and Director Givonna Joseph transcribed the work from the original 550 pages. Of the score Quigley says, “The music Dédé composed for the work is both exciting and innovative, combining a European style and overtones of Southern Americana and brass band music with virtuosic, tour-de-force vocal writing.”

Scholar and media partners on the project include Edmond Dédé’s only modern biographer, Sally McKee, author of “Black Opera” and “Blackness in Opera,” Candace Bailey, who is currently working on her monograph Edmond Dédé and “His World: The Context for ‘Morgiane.” Community partners for this project include the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts, University of Maryland School of Music, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Folger Shakespeare Library, Opera Ebony, and Harvard University’s Houghton Library. Additionally, Opera Fusion: New Works, a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music dedicated to fostering the development of American operas, will provide facilities, talent, and personnel for the OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette team to work through the newly completed, first edition of the score, giving the creative team time to assess, make changes, and adjust the music and libretto.

One-hundred-thirty-eight years after its composition Dédé’s masterpiece makes its world premiere. The tour runs Jan. 23, 2025 through Feb. 7,  in New Orleans, Washington, DC, New York City, and College Park, MD. A video recording of “Morgiane” will take place at the live-performance on Feb. 7 at the University of Maryland, College Park. A live-performance feed will also be made available to the wider community at no cost to ensure accessibility.