Edmond Dédé (1827-1901)
Morgiane ou le Sultan d’Ispahan, Opera in four Acts (1887/2025 world premiere)
Morgiane – Mary Elizabeth Williams (soprano)
Hagi Hassan – Joshua Conyers (baritone)
Ali – Chauncey Packer (tenor)
Amine – Nicole Cabell (soprano)
Beher – Jonathan Woody (bass-baritone)
Kourouschah – Kenneth Kellog (bass)
Opera Créole Ensemble
Opera Lafayette Orchestra/Patrick Dupre Quigley
rec. live, 09 February 2025, Elsie & Marvin Dekelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, USA
Includes booklet with French libretto and English translation
Delos DE3628 [2 CDs: 143]

Let me state right off that Morgiane is one of the most important exhumation discoveries of a 19^th Century opera that I have ever come across. Whatever the limitations of execution on this first recording of a truly lost opera, they pale into insignificance beside finally bringing Dédé‘s wonderful music to a wide audience and confirming the stature of this almost entirely forgotten composer.

Edmond Dédé started life as one of the free-born Créole population that thrived in New Orleans until their societal rights were stripped from them in the 1840s. As a young man Dédé made his way to Paris, where he entered the Paris Conservatoire and had among his teachers Fromental Halévy, the esteemed composer of La Juive. Eventually Dédé would work for many years at the Grande Théâtre in Bordeaux where he alternated conducting with composition. His grand opera Morgiane was completed in 1887, but he never managed to obtain a commitment from any theatre to put on the opera. After a pauper’s death in 1901, his manuscript score was lost for over 100 years, when it finally surfaced in 2011, among a collection of manuscripts that were acquired by Harvard University. The poor and untidy state of Dédé’s score required a great deal of musical editing in order to get it ready for the performance recorded here. This probably accounts for the fact that the libretto has no stage directions, which makes deducing what is actually happening in the plot difficult to ascertain, despite having a translation included in this set. Dédé makes enormous demands on both the orchestra and the performers. His musical lines are ambitious and the emotional strength of this music belies the words which might have graced any of the less memorable works on the stage of the Opéra-Comique at that time. Only sample the ambitious Overture or the emotional depth of the Third Act Prelude to see what I am referring to. Most of the arias are suffused with a similar emotional directness that is unusual among French operas of that period, apart from Carmen. To my ears, the composers that Dédé bears the most similarity to are Emmanuel Chabrier and Édouard Lalo.

I wish that I could report that the performance recorded here is equal to the responsibility of presenting the first performance of the earliest known opera by a Black American composer (it precedes Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha by 24 years). Despite the hard work of everyone involved, the performance lacks polish in many areas.

Listening to the Overture reveals that, despite the period instrument credentials of the Opera Lafayette ensemble, too often one is conscious that the orchestra simply sounds too small and lacking in grandeur to really do justice to Dédé’s composition. Similarly, the 16-member chorus works hard but just doesn’t produce enough amassed sound to the extent this music demands.

The most confident member of the cast is Joshua Conyers, who gives a full-toned performance of the merchant Hagi Hassan. His voice copes generally quite well with the demanding range of his music but often his pitch begins to sag. He manages to be really moving in a simply splendid Act Two aria of ever expanding emotional vulnerability.

Nicole Cabell is probably the most well-known singer among the cast; however, her voice has altered considerably since her exciting 2005 recital album for Decca. She still sings with great assurance.

Chauncey Packer as Ali wins points for attacking his difficult part with conviction; the high notes all emerge cleanly and securely, but a pinched vocal quality works against what he is trying to achieve.

Mary Elizabeth Williams in the title part shows a rich, rounded tone but her singing sounds hesitant at times. Lack of vocal assurance also afflicts Jonathan Woody’s Beher, along with him displaying a none-too-steady tone on sustained notes.

Patrick Dupre Quigley has worked really hard with these performers to bring it all to life in the best possible light. That he believes in the potential inherent in this score is quite apparent. What Morgiane needs most now is for a major company to give it in a concert staging with a full symphony orchestra and a large chorus, employing soloists of international stature…the sort of thing that Palazetto Bru-Zane does so well these days. Perhaps they, or someone else, will take a look at this score and give this long forgotten composer’s ultimate work the revival of the stature that this opera really deserves.

Delos has prepared this release in a full, deluxe edition with a libretto and translation, although the inclusion of a plot synopsis would have been helpful. In addition, there are many photos of what was obviously a concert in costume. Despite the above criticisms Delos is to be commended for bringing this recording into circulation and they have done the opera world a valuable service. This will hopefully be the beginning of a greater future for Morgiane and not just a one-off recording that might be the end of the story for this impressive opera. It has some very definite limitations which probably make it not viable for a full staging; however, a future life on the concert platform should easily be assured. Surely now Edmond Dédé deserves no less.

Mike Parr

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