Dédé’s “Morgiane” proves a lightweight disappointment in belated world premiere
In most seasons Opera Lafayette unearths works lost to time. For its latest offering, the group’s mission aligned with that of OperaCréole, based in New Orleans, to revive the music of forgotten African-American composers. On Monday night at Lincoln Theatre, the two organizations gave the belated world premiere of Morgiane, ou Le sultan d’Ispahan, a full-length opera written in France in 1887 by Edmond Dédé, a composer born into a family of free black people in New Orleans.
Although the piece never saw a performance until now, Morgiane is by all accounts the oldest known opera composed by a black American. The composer’s only score, long believed lost, was rediscovered in 2011, in a collection at Harvard University’s Houghton Library. Opera Lafayette music director-designate Patrick Dupre Quigley worked with music transcriber Maurice Saylor, among many others, to complete a performing edition of the opera from this surviving manuscript.
Louis Brunet’s libretto, perhaps inspired by the Arabian tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, is set in Persia. A young woman, Amine, is about to celebrate her wedding to Ali, when Beher, the servant of Kourouschah, the Sultan of Ispahan, abducts her. The Sultan attempts to coerce Amine into becoming his wife, but the girl’s parents, Morgiane and Hagi Hassan, follow her to Ispahan with Ali. The Sultan relents only when he finds out, miracle of miracles, that the girl’s mother is his ex-wife and Amine, his long-lost daughter.
Hopes are always high when rediscovering a lost work, perhaps heightened in the historic case of this black composer. Sadly, it must be said that Morgiane is far from a masterpiece, with numerous longueurs that added up to a long night in the theater, compounded by a late start due to complications getting the audience through a security check.
Morgiane turned out to be a garden-variety light comic opera, with some charming numbers but not enough musical or dramatic weight to make it a compelling work. Most of the evening’s laughs came in unintended ways, mostly from ridiculous moments in the libretto, and none of the music really stuck in the ear for very long, either in terms of melodic or harmonic interest.
Leading the cast with often incendiary power was soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams in the title role. The tessitura of Morgiane suited her better than her 2023 turn in Santa Fe Opera’s Rusalka, with some forceful high notes and agile passagework. Williams’ imperious stage presence helped smooth the rather absurd plot twist that she was actually once the Sultana of Ispahan, not even recognized by her former husband until she announced herself.
Bass Kenneth Kellogg, a D.C. native long familiar to local audiences, made an imposing foil to Williams as the Sultan. His resonant voice displayed not only virile strength but legato grace, with a few moments where he got off the beat, helped back on track by Quigley’s confident conducting. Baritone Joshua Conyers gave both suave vocal sound and good humor to the role of Hagi Hassan, the latter especially when he found out that Amine was not his daughter after all.
The rest of the cast proved slightly uneven, with bass-baritone Jonathan Woody proving a comically villainous Beher, his vocal heft not generally matching up to his attempt to menace. Soprano Nicole Cabell, pretty and earnest as Amine, ended up lost in ensembles where her part was meant to soar at the top. Tenor Chauncey Parker, who got his start in musical theater, had most of the top notes for the role of Ali, but sang with a pinched and nasal tone. Neither Cabell nor Parker projected very well, a problem compounded by the occasionally heavy scoring.
Singers from OperaCréole, which presented excerpts from the opera in New Orleans last month, performed the choral numbers. Their ensemble sound was not well blended, with male voices often dominating at loud moments. Three singers made brief solo appearances in minor roles, coming to the front of the stage and then returning to the chorus, placed on risers behind the orchestra on the stage.
The Opera Lafayette Orchestra was larger in size than normal, because of the broad scoring used by Dédé. Woodwinds did not really balance well with the strings and the large brass assortment tended to overwhelm everything, bolstered by four horns, three trombones, and an ophicleide. The pairs of trumpets and cornets proved the least reliable in terms of accuracy and intonation. A relatively large percussion section included extended bits for glockenspiel in the market scene of Act II.
Quigley presided over the large forces with a calm hand, holding out promise for a smooth transition to his leadership at Opera Lafayette at the end of this season. Since there was no staging, the stage stood open to the back wall to accommodate the musicians and singers. Costumes for the singers, including the chorus (designed by Amy Amos, Givonna Joseph, and Aria Mason), suggested something of the exotic locale of a Persian city.
Morgiane will be repeated 7 p.m. Wednesday at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York and 7 p.m. Friday at The Clarice in College Park, Maryland. operalafayette.org
