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.