Dédé: Morgiane or The Sultan of Isfahan

Delos, in collaboration with Opera Lafayette and OperaCréole, presents this world-premiere recording of the earliest complete opera by a Black American. This recording is not a revival—it is a revelation. More than a century after its completion, Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane is finally being heard, thanks to the tireless work of Giovonna Joseph, founder of OperaCréole, conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley, and many others. Born in New Orleans, Dédé fled a life that, for free people of color in the American South, was akin to apartheid, to build his career in France—a move that profoundly influenced his compositional style. In this regard, the music of Morgiane is not only beautiful but also bridges different worlds: the American and the French, the Black and the White, the powerful and the marginalized. It is the work of a composer who worked with conviction and brilliance, even as he feared that perhaps no one would ever hear his music.