World premiere of historic opera comes to St. Louis Cathedral

NEW ORLEANS (Dec. 17, 2024) — On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, the Historic New Orleans Collection’s (HNOC) will present the 20th annual Musical Louisiana in the St. Louis Cathedral featuring the long-awaited world premiere of New Orleanian Edmond Dédé’s “Morgiane” (1887), the earliest known surviving full-length opera written by a Black American composer.

Lauded for works that transformed some of France’s most popular stages, Dédé packed a variety of musical genres into “Morgiane”, which has remained a hidden gem for over a century and yet to be heard—until now. “Morgiane” tells a tale of vengeance and reconciliation that begins when a young couple’s wedding day is disrupted by the sultan’s desire for the bride. When the bride’s family seeks revenge, a shocking revelation comes to light, leading to a path of forgiveness.

The free concert will feature the Grammy Award–winning Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), six acclaimed soloists—baritone Joshua Conyers, bass Kenneth Kellogg, tenor Chauncey Packer, sopranos Taylor J. White and Mary Elizabeth Williams, and bass-baritone Jonathan Woody—and the members of OperaCréole under the baton of Washington, DC–based Opera Lafayette’s artistic director designate (and New Orleans native) Patrick Dupre Quigley. The production will draw selections from three acts of the opera. “Morgiane” will be mounted in full in Washington, DC and New York City in February 2025 by Opera Lafayette in partnership with OperaCréole. Visit operacreole.org for more details.

When New Orleans’s OperaCréole co-founder Givonna Joseph learned of Dédé’s newly discovered manuscript, she made it her mission to bring his full opera to life on the stage. After more than a decade of work, her dream is now realized. This concert, produced through a dynamic partnership between HNOC, the LPO, OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette, marks a pivotal moment in the repatriation of New Orleans composer Edmond Dédé’s life, music and legacy. The city’s musical and cultural powerhouses will finally unveil this previously unheard work in the composer’s hometown, in the St. Louis Cathedral, where Dédé was baptized in January 1828.

“Morgiane is the most important piece of American music that no one has ever heard. . . . The American musical community has been deprived of this masterpiece for over 130 years; it is high time that Dédé and his music take their rightful place in the American musical canon.”

—Patrick Dupre Quigley, NBC Nightly News, February 2024

HNOC will host a preconcert panel discussion at 5 p.m. with artistic director Givonna Joseph (OperaCréole), artistic director designate Patrick Dupre Quigley (Opera Lafayette), Dédé biographer Sally McKee (University of California, Davis) and musicologist Candace Bailey (North Carolina Central University). The event will be moderated by HNOC family historian Jari C. Honora and will take place at HNOC’s Williams Research Center located at 410 Chartres S.

Musical Louisiana is a free, educational concert for music lovers in New Orleans and throughout the state. Dedicated to the study of Louisiana’s contributions to the world of classical music, the award-winning concert series reaches an audience of more than 30,000 individuals through live radio broadcasts and online video streaming of the concert. In addition, the accompanying program is distributed to the 68  library systems of the State Library of Louisiana, university libraries, music history instructors in Louisiana and centers throughout the United States concentrating on the study of American music. This year's concert will be streamed live on LPOmusic.com and WLAE.com. WWNO will broadcast the program on 89.9 FM and Classical 104.9 FM in the New Orleans area and KTLN 90.5 FM in the Houma-Thibodaux area.

This world premiere in New Orleans is co-presented by HNOC, OperaCréole and the LPO, courtesy of the production partnership between OperaCréole and DC–based Opera Lafayette, who collaborated to produce Edmond Dédé’s “Morgiane”. Generous support for Musical Louisiana comes from J.P. Morgan, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Arts New Orleans, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, National Endowment for the Arts, Birdfoot Festival Board of Directors and Villa Albertine, a division of the French Embassy of the United States.  

Admission to Musical Louisiana is free and open to the public. RSVP at hnoc.org to receive concert reminders and email updates. Seating is first-come, first-served. Registration does not guarantee a seat.

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About the Historic New Orleans Collection

Founded in 1966, the Historic New Orleans Collection is a museum, research center and publisher dedicated to the stewardship of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South. For more information, visit hnoc.org, call (504) 523-4662, or follow HNOC on Facebook and  Instagram.

About Musical Louisiana

Since 2007 Musical Louisiana: America’s Cultural Heritage has been copresented by the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Dedicated to the study of Louisiana’s contributions to the world of classical music, the award-winning series reaches an audience of more than 30,000 individuals through live performance, live radio broadcasts and online video streaming of the concert.