Edmond Dédé: Selections from the opera “Morgiane“ and more...

A free-born native of New Orleans, Edmond Dédé (1827–1901) spent over four decades conducting orchestras in Bordeaux, France. His recently found but never-performed opera, Morgiane (1888), is the earliest full-length opera by an African American composer. UC Davis Professor of History Sally McKee, author of The Exile’s Song: Edmond Dédé and the Unfinished Revolutions of the Atlantic World (Yale University Press, 2017) will offer some remarks on the work’s significance.