CNN: He’s the First Black American to Compose a Full Opera. It’s Finally Being Staged After 138 years

“For the briefest of moments, a silence fell over the pews of New Orleans’ famed St. Louis Cathedral, as the chapel filled with a collective sense the audience was about to witness history. They were the first to hear composer Edmond Dédé’s opera Morgiane—the earliest known, full-length opera composed by a Black American—more than century after he composed the opus. The score was thought to have been lost, but a chance discovery of the manuscript in Harvard University’s archives presented an opportunity to add Dédé’s name to the canon of American composers. The opening notes of the opera’s overture filled the same cathedral where Dédé was baptized in 1828 during a preview performance last Friday, as a part of The Historic New Orleans Collections’ Musical Louisiana series.”