A couple of weeks after the Inauguration, I attended a concert performance of Edmond Dédé’s opera “Morgiane” at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, at the University of Maryland, just outside Washington. Dédé was a Black composer born in 1827 in New Orleans. In 1855, he immigrated to France, where he made his way as a composer and conductor. “Morgiane,” which he completed in 1887, was intended to be his breakthrough, but no one took it up. The score resurfaced in 2008, in the collections of Houghton Library, at Harvard. The Washington-based company Opera Lafayette and the New Orleans group OperaCréole came together to bring “Morgiane” to life; its first outing was at St. Louis Cathedral, in New Orleans, in January. “Morgiane” displays sufficient inspiration that it would have merited attention no matter who had composed it. With Dédé’s personal story in mind, the undertaking became essential.
The little that is known of Dédé is gathered in Sally McKee’s 2017 book, “The Exile’s Song,” alongside vivid evocations of the social and artistic worlds through which he moved. In New Orleans, he was shaped by a culturally flourishing Black population, with its manifold Haitian connections. He also had the advantage of growing up in what was then America’s opera capital; the genre had yet to find a stable home in New York. The Théâtre d’Orléans hosted a polished opera troupe that presented the latest French works, as well as Mozart and other classics. And, though New Orleans theatres were segregated, Black opera lovers enthusiastically filled the upper tiers. We don’t know whether Dédé attended the opera in his youth, but “Morgiane” gives the impression that he was steeped in the art form from an early age. He knows all the tricks.
Deteriorating conditions for people of color in New Orleans likely precipitated Dédé’s decision to seek his fortunes abroad. After failing to gain admittance to the Paris Conservatory—he was too old to do so—he attended classes as an auditor, studying with Fromental Halévy, the composer of “La Juive.” Dédé later moved to Bordeaux, where he first took a job conducting at the Grand-Théâtre and then supervised more popular fare at cafés-concerts, or music halls. In 1893, he briefly returned to New Orleans, where he felt ill at ease. He died in Paris in 1901. Scattered glimpses of his personality suggest a man of imposing presence and intelligence.