The World Premiere of Morgiane was supported in part by the following donor s , whose vision and commitment have been instrumental in bringing this performance to life.
Ford Foundation
Anonymous (2)
National Endowment for the Arts
The Kenneth Gorelick Fund for Opera Lafayette premiere editions and recordings, supported by a generous initial gift from Cheryl Gorelick
Ella West Freeman Foundation
The School of Music and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and Clarice Presents on the campus of the University of Maryland
The New Orleans Culture and Recreation Fund
David L. Webb & W. Lynn Mclaughlin
The New Orleans Theater Association
Bryan Tramont
Capitol Hill Community Foundation
Season support er s of Opera Lafayette include
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
The Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation
Prince Charitable Trusts
Opera Lafayette in partnership with OperaCréole
PRESENTS
Morgiane, ou,
Le Sultan d’Ispahan
A WORLD PREMIERE
Music by Edmond Dédé
Libretto by Louis Brunet
The Lincoln Theatre
Monday, February 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
Monday, February 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM
A NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
I am particularly proud that the world premiere of Edmond Dédé's Morgiane is the centerpiece of Opera Lafayette’s 30th anniversary season. It has been our Artistic Director Designate Patrick Quigley's passion to produce this work, and Morgiane fits perfectly with Opera Lafayette’s mission to restore lost works of significance. Moreover, the project combines the world of 19th-century France with that of America, revealing an American composer whose life and work need to be understood as a living part of our shared musical inheritance.
Our collaborator in bringing Morgiane to life, Givonna Joseph, Founder and Artistic Director of New Orleans' OperaCréole, has long been a tireless advocate and champion of the music of Dédé and other 19th-century free composers of color. We met and combined forces in the spring of 2023, and with this premiere, Opera Lafayette is especially pleased to complement and honor Givonna’s life’s work.
With Morgiane we also continue our legacy of creating premiere recordings and performing editions, in order that the work may be studied, appreciated, and performed by others. The project has only been possible with the help of our dedicated supporters, and we thank each and every one of you for believing in Opera Lafayette’s work and for welcoming Patrick and his exciting vision for the next stage of the company’s growth.
With deep appreciation,
Ryan Brown Founder and Artistic Director, Opera Lafayette
Edmond Dédé’s
Morgiane, ou Le Sultan d’Ispahan
Conductor
Patrick Dupre Quigley
Cast, In order of vocal appearance
Amine
Nicole Cabell
Ali
Chauncey Packer
Hagi Hassan
Joshua Conyers
Morgiane
Mary Elizabeth Williams
Serviteur
Valencia Pleasant¨
The OperaCréole Ensemble
Givonna Joseph, Founder and Artistic Director
Creative Collaborator
Givonna Joseph
Beher
Jonathan Woody
Marchand
Taylor White ¨
Un Seigneur
Antonio Domino, Jr. ¨
Korouschah, Le Sultan
Kenneth Kellogg
¨ Member of the OperaCréole Ensemble
Aria Mason, Co-Founder and OperaCréole Production Director
Steven Edwards, Chorus Rehearsal Director
Soprano
Jennifer Coisier
Tamia Dayanari
Juliana Starr
Taylor J. White * (Amine cover artist)
Alto
Olivia Browne
Ekanem Ebinne
Santrell Jade Perdue
Valencia Pleasant * (Morgiane cover artist)
* Wedding Sextet
Tenor
William Alber
Antonio Domino, Jr. * (Ali cover artist)
David Michel
Charles Mukaida *
Baritone
Christopher-Lawson Palmer
Joshua Staes * (Hagi Hassan and Beher cover artist)
Bass-baritone
Ivan Griffin * (Korouschah, Le Sultan cover artist)
Herbert Spurlock III
The Opera Lafayette Orchestra
Violin 1
Edson Scheid*
Concertmaster
Theresa Salomon
Karen Dekker
Marlisa Woods
Jude Ziliak
Freya Creech
Melanie Riordan
Gesa Kordes
Violin 2
Keats Dieffenbach*
Natalie Kress
Kako Boga
Toma Iliev
Leslie Nero
C. Ann Loud
Viola
Jessica Troy*
Isaiah Chapman
Stephen Goist
Graham Cohen
Harp
Chelsea Lane*
Production Team
Costume Design
Cello
Loretta O’Sullivan*
Serafim Smigelskiy
Alexa Haynes Pilon
Nancy Jo Snider
Bass
Anthony Manzo*
Motomi Igarashi
Flute
Charles Brink*
Immanuel Davis
Oboe
Dan Bates*
David Dickey
English Horn
David Dickey
Clarinet
Ed Matthew*
Dominic Giardino
Bassoon
Anna Marsh*
Dave Wells
Amy Amos, Givonna Joseph, Aria Mason
Morgiane First Edition Transcription
Maurice Saylor
Morgiane First Edition Vocal Score Engraving and Piano Reduction Arrangement
Derek Greten-Harrison
Morgiane First Edition Editing
Maurice Saylor and Patrick Quigley
Supertitle Creation
Aria Mason
Orchestra Personnel Manager and Librarian
Natalie Kress
Horn
Todd Williams*
Sara Cyrus
John Manganaro*
Nate Udell
Trumpet
Justin Bland*
Paul Perfetti
Cornet
Perry Sutton*
Steven Marquardt
Trombone
Liza Malamut*
Ben David Aronson
Garrett Lahr
Ophicleide
Barry Bonacer* Percussion
Michelle Humphreys*
Donnie Johns
Malcolm Taylor * Principal Artist
Stage Manager
Nichole Chaney
Supertitles Operator
Patrick Kilbride
Recording Producer
James K. Bass
Recording Engineer
Antonino d’Urzo
Original Translations
Juliana Starr, University of New Orleans
Public Relations/Marketing
Kendra Rubinfeld, KRPR
CAST OF CHARACTERS and SYNOPSIS
Characters
Amine, Daughter of Morgiane and Hagi Hassan
Ali, Amine's fiancé and an orphan
Hagi Hassan, Amine's adopted father
Morgiane, Amine's mother
Beher, servant of the sultan
Kourouschah, the Sultan of Ispahan, Persia
Synopsis
Act 1: A Wedding Celebration
On her wedding day, Amine learns Hassan, the man who raised her, is not her father. Desperate to learn her true father’s identity, she begs her mother, Morgiane, but her pleas are refused. The bridegroom, Ali, tries to comfort her. Suddenly, soldiers led by the Sultan's cruel servant Beher interrupt the celebration and kidnap the beautiful Amine.
Act 2: The Market at Ispahan
Ali, Morgiane, and Hassan journey across the desert in search of Amine. They arrive at a bustling market in Ispahan, ruled by the Sultan. They watch helplessly as Beher drags Amine in chains toward the Sultan's palace. That evening, they devise a daring rescue plan.
Act 3: The Royal Palace
The Sultan plans to seduce Amine, but she stands up to him bravely. Disguised as entertainers, Ali, Morgiane, and Hassan hope to persuade the Sultan to release her. When their story fails to sway him, Ali grows angry and draws a dagger. Beher unmasks the entertainers, revealing their true identities, and they are arrested.
Act 3: The Prison
The Sultan offers Amine a choice: become his lover and save her family or refuse and face execution with them. Amine chooses death over betrayal. Before the Sultan begins sentencing, Morgiane confronts him, revealing a diamond ring hanging around her neck. “This is the ring that you gave me, your wife and Sultana, on the day that our daughter was born. You were a cruel husband, and I fled that day, to spare my daughter. You cannot marry the woman you have kidnapped, for Amine is your daughter, too.” The Sultan, shamed and repentant, frees his prisoners and declares that the death warrant is forgiven.
FROM THE CONDUCTOR’S PODIUM
Patrick Dupre Quigley, Conductor and Opera Lafayette Artistic Director Designate
It is a scandal that Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane, a fascinating French grand opera composed by an American free person of color, has lain in obscurity for 138 years. Completed in 1887 but never performed, Morgiane was hidden in a 550-page handwritten manuscript, crying out to be heard.
That we have this masterpiece at all is a miracle. No one knows exactly what happened to the opera after Dédé’s death in 1901 only that the score found its way from Dédé’s heirs to manuscript collectors over the course of nearly 100 years. Morgiane would not reenter the public realm until the first decade of the 21st century, when Harvard University acquired it and made a digital copy available online.
Over the past 18 months, our team of engravers, historians, editors, and musicians painstakingly worked to enter the score into modern music notation software. We grappled with smudged notes, unintelligible words, and, at times, references to other manuscripts that remain lost. Had Morgiane received an outing during Dédé’s lifetime, he and his team would undoubtedly have resolved many of the score’s scribal hiccups. However, since we inherit this work in a single source, we have had to rely on our collective knowledge of late 19th century French musical style (and, inevitably, educated guesswork) to finally breathe life into Maestro Dédé’s masterpiece.
More than 100 people associated with OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette contributed to restoring the music you will hear today. We have collectively reviewed, questioned, and soul-searched to ensure the substance and spirit of Morgiane will ring out in its inexcusably delayed first outing.
When Morgiane receives its fifth, 10th, and (hopefully) 100th performance, musicians to come will continue refining the inspiring music of an unrighteously overlooked American composer. The score that you hear today is the first, but almost certainly not the final, version of Morgiane. You are now our collaborator in this most important musical endeavor. We are grateful for your support and hope you will help promulgate the magnificent music and story of Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane.
Edmond Dédé’s manuscript of Morgiane will be on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library until March 3, 2025. More information on viewing hours at www.folger.edu.
REFLECTIONS ON MORGIANE
Givonna Joseph, Co-founder and Artistic Director, OperaCréole
Hallelujah, the world premiere of Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane is happening! What a wonderful journey it has been to get to this day!
I first became familiar with the New Orleanian composer Dédé in 2000, when Richard Rosenberg’s Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra released a CD of his music. Some say I followed my instincts some say divine intervention put me in the right place at the right time: I had just begun my tenure as education director for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the more I listened, the more I felt that this incredible composer deserved to be widely known and appreciated. I am a New Orleans girl through and through, going back at least seven generations of Creoles of color, and learning the expansive truth about our people’s contributions to opera and classical music in this city touched my heart in a way that I cannot describe.
I received a copy of Dédé’s art song “Mon Pauvre Coeur” one of the earliest pieces of music published by a free man of color from Thaïs St. Julien of Musica da Camera, and I found the sheet music of his song “Le Serment de l’Arabe” at Amistad Research Center. HNOC’s Alfred Lemmon brought me a stack of music from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. I was set firmly on my path to do justice to Dédé’s legacy!
In 2014, historian and genealogist Jari C. Honora (now with HNOC) told me that Xavier University of Louisiana had acquired a digital copy of the manuscript of Dédé’s opera Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan from Harvard University. Archivist Lester Sullivan at Xavier shared the file with me, and I began what would become a decade-long quest to bring the opera to life. As OperaCréole presented other works by Dédé, I went onto every stage carrying with me the first page of this opera, praying I could find support to get the complete manuscript more than five hundred handwritten pages transcribed and produced.
My daughter, Aria Mason, OperaCréole’s cofounder, reminded me that she grew up with some Dédé boys Harold Jr. and William and we were happy to be able to include their father, Harold Dede Sr., and their uncle Westley, descendants of Edmond’s brother Basile, in our 2018 WWNO public radio interview, “Edmond Dédé: The Classical Composer You’ve Never Heard Of.” That same year, the New Orleans Arts and Culture Coalition, led by Kara Olidge, executive director of Amistad, presented African Heritage of New Orleans: 300 Years in the Making, an exhibition mounted at HNOC to mark the tricentennial of New Orleans’s founding. As a member of the coalition, OperaCréole exhibited the first page of the opera’s overture and Dédé’s photo.
Morgiane finally takes the stage in 2025. It is likely the first four-act opera by a US-born composer of African descent. It has meant the world to me, but it means even more to the city of his birth. Finally, the composer has come home to St. Louis Cathedral, where he was baptized in 1828. Let the city rejoice! Thanks to the Consulate General of France in Louisiana, HNOC, the LPO, and Washington, DC–based Opera Lafayette, Edmond Dédé is on his way to becoming the composer everyone has heard of!
First published by the Historic New Orleans Collection in Homecoming: Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane: A World Premiere (2025).
PROGRAM NOTE
Candace Bailey, author, Edmond Dédé: “Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan” (forthcoming)
When Edmond Dédé moved to France, he encountered an operatic culture heavily controlled (and subsidized) by the government a situation at odds with his experiences in the United States. Strict regulations determined which types of stage works could be performed in which venues, differentiating between such details as the amount and type of recitative, the number of acts, and the role of the chorus. To be a successful opera composer at this time meant adhering to these rules as well as negotiating the difficult processes necessary to bring a work to production. Not surprisingly, the official protocols dissipated as the century wore on. Legislation deregulated lyrical and spoken stage works in 1864, and new operas, most memorably George Bizet’s Carmen (1875), began to test the boundaries of opera types. By the time Dédé completed Morgiane (1887), the heyday of grand opera (à la Giacomo Meyerbeer) had long passed, and French audiences were treated to new styles of opera emanating from the pens of Jules Massanet and Camille Saint-Saëns. This being the case, why the first public announcements of Morgiane described it as a “grand opera” remains unknown.
Dédé would have been aware of the distinctions between grand opera, opéra-comique, opérette (operetta or light opera), and other genres of lyrical music for the stage. He was also well versed in popular music of the period, evinced by his ballets performed at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in the 1860s and 1870s. His established reputation as a composer of vocal music in France can be shown not only in his published songs of the 1860s (which are often dedicated to popular singers) but also by a local newspaper editorial of 1863 that suggested that the Grand Théâtre stage one-act comic operas to be composed by Dédé (and others) for the month when the regular opera season was closed. The rise of operetta (largely driven by the endeavors of Jacques Offenbach) and the various types of music heard in the theaters lining the boulevards in Paris also impacted Bordelaise audiences in their own venues, some of which employed Dédé in the decades leading up to Morgiane. The music in his opera reflects the composer’s extensive experience in cafés-concerts around the city (as well as in casinos in other cities) and mirrors the catchy melodies and harmonic style heard in them.
Taking all these facets of vocal music for the French stage at the end of the nineteenth century into consideration helps clarify Dédé’s stylistic place among his contemporaries. Much of Morgiane can be traced to the tuneful songs of the café-concert. The use of the chorus as participants in the drama derives from grand opera practices, as does the large orchestra and colorful orchestration. Other aspects of the opera reveal more about the composer’s individual style, such as the adoption of Caribbean rhythms in some of the dances or the inventive counterpoint that crops up in choruses and between solo singers and instruments. His occasional nods to older works, such as Mozart’s Le nozze de Figaro, tempt us to think that he is either displaying his knowledge of the classic repertoire or making deliberate references to specific scenes in well-known works or both. The summation of Dédé’s music in Morgiane is that it confirms his familiarity with operatic tradition, which he imbues with light vocal styles underscored with dramatic orchestral timbres, while maintaining ties to his US-American roots and personal style. A triumph indeed!
EDMOND DÉDÉ: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Sally McKee, author, The Exile’s Song: Edmond Dédé and the Unfinished Revolutions of the Atlantic World
Over a thirty-five-year career spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Edmond Dédé (1827–1901) composed symphonic pieces, ballet interludes, more than 250 songs, and one grand opera, Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan. Despite this large body of work, much of which still survives as sheet music, most of his compositions have not been heard since his lifetime. As the performance you will hear today will demonstrate, history’s neglect has not been warranted.
Dédé was born into a New Orleans African American family whose members had been free for as long as the United States republic had existed. Freedom, it needs to be said, endowed people of color with few civil rights in pre–Civil War Louisiana. Apartheid-like social laws and norms dominated the lives of every person of African descent.
To fulfill his ambition to compose music in the European style, Dédé studied music and played in small orchestras, while working in a cigar factory to support himself. Many of the city’s best music teachers happened to be Black: according to James Trotter’s 1878 Music and Some Highly Musical People (a survey of Black musicians), Dédé studied with Basile Dédé fils (his own father), with Constantin Deburque, and with a music teacher of European descent who accepted Black students (Ludovico Gabici, who had recently arrived from Italy). By the late 1840s, having exhausted the few options open to him in his native city, Dédé decided to seek employment as an instrumentalist and further his music education outside the US.
Dédé spent a few years playing in orchestras in Mexico City. Illness forced him to return to New Orleans in 1851, a move fraught with danger. Free people of color risked expulsion, jail, or even enslavement if they attempted to reenter Louisiana after an extended absence. Using a safe- passage passport identifying him as a Mexican national, Dédé returned to his native city, where he resumed his life until he found another exit.
Fortunately, he had the support of his former teachers and his community. In early 1855, they organized a subscription concert for his financial benefit. They raised enough funds for his steamer fare to France and living expenses in Paris. Too old to enroll at the prestigious Conservatoire de Musique, Dédé participated in classes there as an auditor and took private lessons. He studied with Fromenthal Halévy, the opera composer, and Jean-Delphin Alard, the violin virtuoso, both members of the conservatory faculty. After three years of study, Dédé found employment as a conductor in Rouen and Angers. By the end of 1861 he had found a position in southwestern France, in Bordeaux.
No less than today, the musicians’ job market in nineteenth-century France was extremely competitive. It is indicative of Dédé’s great talent that he, a Black man, competed for jobs successfully in a country whose repertoire of racial stereotypes and prejudice created barriers that resembled US legal structures of racial discrimination. The first position Dédé held was at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, where he worked as composer and piano accompanist of ballet dance sequences in opera productions. In 1864, after he married Sylvie Leflet, a French hatmaker, Dédé obtained a better-paid position as music director at the Alcazar, a popular café-concert, or music hall, in Bordeaux. When the Alcazar closed in
the early 1870s, Dédé moved to Bordeaux’s Folies Bordelaises. In 1890, he retired and moved with his wife to Paris, where his son, Eugène-Arcade, was already working as a professional songwriter at the Thèâtre de la Gaîté in Montparnasse. Dédé’s brief visit to New Orleans in late 1892 convinced him that his native country was as unwelcoming to African Americans as it had been before he left. He quickly returned to Paris, where, according to the death certificate in the Archives de Paris (Actes de Décès, 14e arr. V4E 9803), he died in 1901, at the age of seventy-four.
Edmond Dédé completed his masterwork, the opera Morgiane, in 1887. Until now, it has never been performed. The sole surviving manuscript of the opera emerged in 2011 from a collection of decommissioned nineteenth-century opera manuscripts acquired from a collector by Houghton Library at Harvard University. Dédé’s opera stands as the oldest extant opera score by an African American composer.
First published by the Historic New Orleans Collection in Homecoming: Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane: A World Premiere (2025).
BIOGRAPHIES
Candace Bailey | Preshow Lecturer, author and musicologist
Dr. Candace Bailey is the Neville Distinguished Professor of the Visual and Performing Arts at North Carolina Central University, an HBCU in Durham, NC. Her recent interests center on musical culture of the nineteenth-century US South, particularly women’s music, bound volumes of music as signifiers of culture (in the US, South America, and Europe), and women’s music in Restoration and Regency England. Dr. Bailey’s work on Edmond Dédé stems from her research on music in New Orleans between 1830 and 1880, and the impact of social networks among people of color in the Crescent City. She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including those from the ACLS, NEH, and National Humanities Center. Her award-winning book, Unbinding Gentility: Women Making Music in the NineteenthCentury South (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2021), challenges assumptions about music, gender, and race over a turbulent period of US-American history.
Ryan Brown | Opera Lafayette Founder and Artistic Director
Ryan Brown is the founder and artistic director of Opera Lafayette, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2019/2020 season. Through his work with Opera Lafayette, Ryan has gained an international reputation for his role in the revival and reassessment of significant works from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. His discography of sound recordings for Naxos has focused on the French repertoire, including well-known works by composers such as Lully, Rameau, and Gluck, as well as premiere recordings of operas by Rebel/Francoeur, Monsigny, Philidor, Grétry, Sacchini, and Félicien David. Ryan has also created three DVDs with Opera Lafayette for Naxos, including the modern premiere of Gaveaux and Bouilly’s Leonore, ou L’Amour conjugal, the 97 model for Beethoven’s Leonore, the latter of which Opera Lafayette presented in its 25th anniversary season, as well as Rameau’s Les Fetes de L’Hymen et de L’Amour, ou Les Dieux d’Egypte, a collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company, the Seán Curran Company, and Kalanidhi Dance. Ryan has also led performances of operas by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Paisiello, Rameau, and Cimarosa. He regularly appears in Washington, DC and New York with Opera Lafayette and has also conducted in San Francisco, Seattle, and at The Glimmerglass Festival and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Ryan was raised in a musical family in California and performed extensively as a violinist and chamber musician before turning his attention to conducting. His teachers include Dorothy DeLay and Gustav Meier. He is a recipient of La Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel from La Renaissance Française, and when not conducting spends his time in southwestern Colorado.
Nicole Cabell, soprano |Amine
Nicole Cabell, the 2005 Winner of the BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff and Decca recording artist, is one of the most sought-after lyric sopranos of today. Her solo debut album, “Soprano” was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone and has received an incredible amount of critical acclaim and several prestigious awards. This season Nicole Cabell appears in concert with the Rochester Philharmonic and in recital at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Last season Nicole Cabell made both a company and a role debut when she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the Royal Swedish Opera and returned to Tucson
to perform Poulenc’s Gloria and a solo recital. Previously Ms. Cabell returned to the BBC Proms for a concert of George Walker’s Lilacs, before performing the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Pittsburgh Opera. Further opera performances included Bess in Porgy and Bess with Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera and concerts of Clara in the same opera with the NDR and Alan Gilbert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. In concert, Ms. Cabell sang Messiah with the Seattle Symphony, Vaughan-Williams’ Sea Symphony with the Atlanta Symphony and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Rochester Philharmonic.
Joshua Conyers, baritone | Hagi Hassan
Grammy-nominated baritone Joshua Conyers has been singled out by Opera News for his “deliciously honeyed baritone that would seduce anyone,” by The New York Times as having “a sonorous baritone” that “wheedled and seduced,” and by The Washington Post for giving a "show-stealing" performance. A native of Bronx, NY, his performances of new and standard operatic works, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, have been hailed by the press. Conyers’ 2023-24 season included performing and covering Reginald in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm with Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera respectively, Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and his role debut of Scarpia in Tosca with Opera Wilmington. Upcoming in 2024–25, Joshua is seen with Piedmont Opera as Pierre Cauchon in The Trial at Rouen, and will make his role debut as Falstaff Recent seasons have included English National Opera Policeman/Congregant 3 in Tesori and Thompson’s Blue, Boston Lyric Opera as Count Capulet in Roméo et Juliette, Memphis Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Opera Lafayette’s The Blacksmith, and Cecilia Chorus of NYC for Carmina Burana at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Conyers is an alum of the Cafritz Young Artists program at Washington National Opera, where he appeared as the First Priest in The Magic Flute, Germont in La Traviata, British Major in Silent Night, and Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin. Mr. Conyers is currently on the voice faculty at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Conyers is currently on the voice faculty of Eastman School of Music.
Givonna Joseph |OperaCréole Founder and Artistic Director
As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, Givonna Joseph’s research on 19th-century New Orleans free classical and operatic composers of color and Creole history and heritage was recently featured on NBC Nightly News, NPR, and in magazines such as Black Enterprise, 64 Parishes, and Atlas Obscura. Previous cover articles include BreakThru Media magazine, and NOLA Boomers magazine. Since 2011, the international soloist, arts integration specialist, and university lecturer, along with her daughter, Aria Mason, OperaCréole co-founder, has received several honors for mounting lost or rarely heard operas by composers of color. In 2022, she received The Torchbearers Award from The New Orleans Regional Chapter of The National Coalition of 100 Black Women. The former Education Director for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra was most recently featured in educational documentaries, including Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, Dillard University's Ray Charles Center for Material Culture's Legacy of American Slavery, and The Nous Foundation’s Voices of Renewal, celebrating the Creole language. The Loyola graduate also teaches a class there, Opera, Classical Music, and Race, and gives back to several organizations such as The Council of French Societies, The Symphony Chorus, The Black Administrators of Opera, and Opera America.
Kenneth Kellogg, bass | Kourouschah, the Sultan
American bass Kenneth Kellogg’s recent career highlights include his recent Wagner debut as Fafner in Seattle Opera’s celebrated new production of Das Rheingold, a role he also sang at Calgary Opera. Returning to Seattle, he made his debut in the title role X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; other recent appearances include Il Re Aida in concert at Detroit Opera, Colline La Boheme with Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Falstaff The Merry Wives of Windsor at Pocket Opera and as Logger Bulrusher at West Edge Opera both new productions. Productions in 2024-25 include Father Blue at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ramfis Aida at Daytona Opera, and in his return to Washington National Opera his debut as Crown Porgy and Bess. Future appearances include a return to Wagner with Daland Der fliegende Hollander and Wotan Die Walkure (Act III) in concert. A significant feature of the last three seasons is the artist’s creation of the role of Father Blue, named the best new opera of 2020 by the Music Critics Association of North America, a role written for him by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson. Kenneth sang the role in its world premiere at Glimmerglass Festival, and following that, at Detroit Opera, Toledo Opera, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Washington National Opera and internationally at Dutch National Opera in The Netherlands, and at London’s English National Opera.
Sally McKee |Historian
OperaCréole
Sally McKee is Professor emerita of History at the University of California at Davis. Her book, Edmond Dédé and the Unfinished Revolutions of the Atlantic World, appeared in 2017.
OperaCréole was founded in 2011 by the mother-and-daughter team of Givonna Joseph and Aria Mason and is dedicated to researching and performing lost or rarely performed works by composers of African descent. This award-winning nonprofit specializes in works by nineteenth-century New Orleans free composers of color and works that promote Louisiana's Creole language and culture. OperaCréole's groundbreaking work includes the 2017 production of the lost opera La Flamenca (1903), by Lucien Lambert, acknowledged nationally by NPR (National Public Radio), The New Yorker, and the AfriClassical blog. OperaCréole regularly performs in collaboration with local, cultural institutions and at regional festivals and conferences. In 2017, cofounders Givonna Joseph and Aria Mason were named among the Southerners of the Year by Southern Living. Since 2011, OperaCréole has received numerous awards for contributions to the operatic sphere. Aria Mason is a 2025 New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund (NOTCF) honoree.
Opera Lafayette
Hailed as "enterprising" by The New York Times and "one of the most creatively game and artistically sound operations in the business" by The Washington Post, Opera Lafayette is dedicated to enriching the cultural landscape by presenting first-rate, historical opera that might otherwise be lost Established in 1995 in Washington, DC, this leading interpreter of music from the 17th to 19th centuries is noted for their integration of dance into performances and has been hailed as “a feast of music, richly sung, as a main course, with a delectable dessert course [of] dance”. Frequently seen at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and in New York at venues that include Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Opera Lafayette achieved international fame in 2012 and again in 2014
when, at the invitation of Chateau de Versailles Spectacles, they were invited to perform at Opéra Royal in Versailles, France, closing with five sold-out performances. Alongside their productions, supported by scholarly research that highlights both the historical context of these works and their relevance to today’s world, Opera Lafayette has created over a dozen audio recordings and three DVDs on the Naxos label, ensuring a legacy of this timeless repertoire.
Chauncey Packer, tenor |Ali
Versatile tenor Chauncey Packer honed his craft in theater and musical theater productions including Baby, The Wizard of Oz, School House Rock Live, and Big River. He performed in Paris’s Louvre Museum in controversial and provocative European choreographer/director Robyn Orlin's Babysitting Petit Louis In 2013-2014, he was cast in the First National Broadway Tour of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Mr. Packer is featured on several commercial recordings including Nashville Symphony’s Porgy and Bess, Paragon Ragtime Symphony’s Treemonisha, and Black Manhattan Volume 3. He is featured to critical acclaim in San Francisco Opera’s DVD release of Porgy and Bess. As a recurring performer at The Metropolitan Opera, Packer recently portrayed Bardolfo in Falstaff and Luis Rodrigo Griffith in Champion. He also made his role debut as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel at New Orleans Opera, brought his celebrated Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess to Germany’s NDR Elbphilharmonic Orchestra, sang and danced as Nathan Detroit in Charlottesville Opera’s Guys and Dolls, and reprised his Cavaradossi in the Soo Theatre’s Tosca. Last season, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera as Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking and reprised his Spinner in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. In addition, he brought his Alfredo in La Traviata to Knoxville Opera, Rodolfo in La Bohème to Memphis Opera, and joined the South Florida Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic for Handel’s Messiah. In the upcoming season, Mr. Packer will once again return to his beloved Sportin’ Life in Washington National Opera’s Porgy and Bess Chauncey Packer hails from southern Alabama.
Patrick Dupre Quigley |Conductor, Opera Lafayette Artistic Director Designate
Patrick Dupre Quigley is the Artistic Director Designate of Opera Lafayette and the Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire. An advocate for a more inclusive concert experience, Quigley’s programs regularly span more than 1000 years of musical history. Quigley deeply respects music traditions outside the Western European canon and has developed concerts and collaborations highlighting the music of the Babylonian Jews, New Orleans’s Black Gospel tradition, Latin Pop, and the Baroque music of North and South America. Quigley’s discography with Seraphic Fire includes 16 titles, representing diverse musical voices. Two titles have received GRAMMY® nominations. Recent and upcoming engagements include conducting debuts with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Phoenix Symphony; and return engagements with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, the Charlotte Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and New World Symphony. Quigley holds an undergraduate degree in Music Theory and History from the University of Notre Dame where he studied with Alexander Blachly and Daniel Stowe. Quigley studied conducting with Marguerite Brooks while earning a Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music. He assisted Michael Tilson Thomas at the San Francisco Symphony. Quigley is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana and currently resides in Washington, DC.
Mary Elizabeth Williams, soprano | Morgiane
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a native of Philadelphia. Her career has taken her all over the globe in a careening zig-zag pattern and she is grateful for every moment. Not long after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Luther College in Iowa, she began her first professional singing engagement with the national Broadway tour of Showboat, which toured 9 U.S. cities in 12 months. She began her operatic career after completing young artist contracts at both Seattle Opera and the Opéra National de Paris, quickly making a name for herself in spinto soprano repertoire like Tosca, Aida, and Leonora in Il Trovatore. Mary Elizabeth has gradually added more demanding dramatic coloratura roles to her repertoire and now is a sought-after interpreter of roles like Abigaille (Nabucco), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), and Norma. Last season, she enjoyed an acclaimed debut of Isolde (Tristan Und Isolde) at Seattle Opera and in Peter Sellars's iconic production with Opera National de Paris. In the 2024/25 season, Mary Elizabeth will continue to balance debuts (Erwartung, Turandot) with the repertoire she has already made her own (Aida, Nabucco, Porgy and Bess). She lives in Italy with her husband, tenor Lorenzo Decaro.
Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone | Beher
Jonathan Woody is a versatile and dynamic musician who maintains an active schedule as a performer and composer across North America. Cited by The Washington Post for his “resonance and clarity,” Woody appears regularly with the Boston Early Music Festival, Apollo's Fire, Pacific MusicWorks, Bach Collegium San Diego, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and New York Baroque Incorporated. The New York Times has praised Woody, an accomplished chamber musician, for his "charismatic" and "riveting" solos with the GRAMMY®-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Recent performances include collaboration with Kaleidoscope Ensemble, Les Délices, Seraphic Fire, Byron Schenkman and Friends, and TENET Vocal Artists. As a composer, Jonathan has received commissions from Apollo’s Fire, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Chanticleer, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, DC, and the Five Boroughs Music Festival, among others. Jonathan has premiered works of several leading composers, including Ted Hearne, Ellen Reid, Missy Mazzoli, and Du Yun. His discography includes recordings with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, ACRONYM, Boston Early Music Festival and the New York Polyphony He is an Artistic Associate and frequent performer with Opera Lafayette, most recently appearing in Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie. Jonathan is committed to racial equity in the field of the performing arts and currently serves on Early Music America’s Task Force for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access. Presently living on traditional Lenape lands now known as Brooklyn, NY, he holds degrees from McGill University and the University of Maryland, College Park.
Opera Lafayette Partners
Opera Lafayette recognizes and appreciates the collaborative spirit of our community partners, whose pivotal assistance has enriched and illuminated our programming.
OperaCréole
Cincinnati Opera
Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts
Consulate General of France in New Orleans
The Folger Shakespeare Library
Historic New Orleans Collection
Opera America
Opera Ebony
Opera Fusion: New Works
Stanford in Washington
University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
Our heartfelt thanks go to these generous contributors who have stepped forward to support this programming with their time, energy, and passion
Jill Esterman
Louis Forget
Lisa Gugenheim and Larry Nathanson
Susan Lynner
Evans Mirageas
MS Rau Antiques
Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
Individual Donors
Opera Lafayette expresses its deepest gratitude for the extraordinary support of its donors and patrons, whose generous contributions help to ensure the continued vitality of our organization
Please consider joining this group of dedicated arts lovers who support Opera Lafayette. For more information on how you can make a difference, please visit our website at OperaLafayette.org/support or contact the Managing Director at lisacmion@OperaLafayette.org. The individual gift listings below reflect donations made between January 1, 2024January 1, 2025.
Leaders Circle
($20,000+)
Mr. and Mrs. Ross Ain
Cheryl Gorelick
Ryan Brown and Christine Healey
David C. Frederick and Sophia Lynn
Stephen E. and Mary Sue Kitchen
Ellen I. McCoy
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard H. Ralston
Anonymous (4)
Benefactors’ Circle
($10,000 - $19,999)
Dorsey and Susan Dunn
Susan Gutfreund
Robert V. Jones
Susan A. Lynner
Dr. Nancy Maruyama
Dr. Janet M. Storella and Mr. Andrew T. Karron
Lulu Wang
Trustees’ Circle
($5,000 - $9,999)
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Allen
Parker Jayne and Thea Austen
Stephanie Bernheim and Ralph Wharton
Bill and Cari Gradison / Gradison Foundation
William Haseltine & Maria Eugenia Maury
Margaret Hedberg
Michele Gerber Klein
Valerie R. Lynn
Ms. Heather Mac Donald
Mr. and Mrs. William Maroney
Mrs. Barbara Tober
Drs. Daniel and Susan Thys
Bryan Tramont
David Webb & W. Lynn McLaughlin
JoAnn Willis and Charles N. Kahn III
Sustainers’ Circle
($2,500 – $4,999)
David Beer
Layla Diba
Joan L. Elliston
Louis and Marie-Hélène Forget
Rebecca and Ron Harris-Warrick
Tom Helinski
Marifé Hernández and Joel Bell
Adrienne Jamieson and Patrick Chamorel
Mr. Richard Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Kimmelman
Merri Moken
Marie Nugent-Head and James Marlas
Bruce Rosenblum and Lori Laitman
Joseph D. and Maureen Roxe
Bonnie Simon
Anonymous (4)
Patrons’ Circle
($1,000 - $2,499)
Mehdi Reza Asef
Susan Baker and Michael Lynch
Mr. and Mrs. J. Truman Bidwell, Jr
Ellen Bonnell
Roxanne and Henry Brandt
Suzi Cordish
Walter Denny and Alice Robbins
Mr. Francis Dubois
Jill Esterman
Jean Golden
Sheila Ffolliott
Dennis Gallagher and Carol Barthel
Mr. Robert Green
Joan Greenberg
Samuel and Marcia Hellman
Meche Kroop
Margo Langenberg
Patrik Lonn
Daniel Lozier
Anne Mackinnon
Ms. Mary Lynne Martin
Karen A. McLaughlin and Mark Schubin
Catherine S. Michaelson
Jonathan Marder
Ingrid Meyer
Vanessa Noel
Leon Polsky
Drs. Sunita and Ashwani Rajput
Jane and Bruce Robert
Will Roseman
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Sculco
Michelle Sikora
Sybil Silver
Ann Van Ness
John and Joan Westley
Mr. Alden Warner, III and Mr. Peter S. Reed
John C. Wiecking
Victoria Wyman
Susan Yamada
Nassrin Iromloo Zahedi
Anonymous (1)
Donors’ Circle
($500 - $999)
Barry Abel
Joel Brenner and Victoria Pope
Ms. Noreen Buckfire
Dr. Morris J. Chalick
Merritt Chesley
Tim Cone
Mr. John Driscoll
Maureen Dwyer
Matthew Easley
Jessica Falvo
Mr. Christopher C. Forbes
Francoise Girard
Sheridan Harvey
Andrea Knutson
Vivianne C. Lake
Mr. John Lipsky
Joan E. McFarland
Stewart Manger
Patrick Metz
Timothy Milford and Liza Velazquez
Jeffrey Mora
Robert A. Peccola and Patrick Dupre Quigley
Mrs. Kenneth B. Prouty
Dr. Robin S. Rothrock
Bill and Annette Reilly
Mr. Christopher Robey
Ms. Lois Rosow
Anne Shine
Rochelle and Robert Sinclair
Matthew Slater and Faith Roessel
Eileen Tanner
Deborah Weinberger
Dr. Karen Weinstein and Mr. Laurent Ohayon
Huanjie Yuan
Anonymous (1)
Supporter
($100 - $499)
Dr. Andrew Austin
Jean W. Arnold
Wallace K. Bailey
Virginia M. Bland
Jennifer and Derick Brinkerhoff
Derek Brown and Deborah Hellman
Mr. and Mrs. Keven F. Brown
Avis Bohlen Calleo
Vickie D. Carlson
Maria Dufau Catt
Eve Chauchard
Joanne Chernow
Ken Cohen & Carol Matteini
Marilyn Courtot and Charles Wyman
Sara Creed
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cummins
Mr. Seán Curran
Eric Denker
Linda DeRamus
Karen DuVal
Ms. Fynnette Eaton and Mr. James E. Miller
Deborah Edge
Joan Esposito
Janet Farbstein
Alan and Hannah Fisher
John Fitzgerald
Lynne Fortunato
Mary Fraker
Bruce A. Garetz
James A. Glazier
Leo Greenbaum
Elizabeth Hitz
John and Shizue Howe
Paul E. Johnson
Noël Klapper
Lorna Kettaneh
Dr. Lenore Kreitman
Judi Landon
Geoffrey D. Kaiser
Rebecca McCormack
Cynthia & Michael McKee
Heather McPherson
Deborah Mintz
Rose Marie Morse
Dianne and Chris O'Flinn
Claudia Oribe
Lynn Parseghian
Mr. John Percy
Trudy and Gary Peterson
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reischauer
Dr. Barbara Reissman
Jane Ross
J. Brinton Rowdybush
Carole Sargent
Jayme A. Sokolow and Thelma M. Craig
Leo H. Settler and Joel Cuffman
Mr. and Mrs. Clark Silcox
Thomas Strikwerda
Sherri and Brett Swartz
Dorry Swope
Barbara Vogt
Ms. Denise Vogt
Baird Webel
Elizabeth A. Witt
Tracy D. Wojcik
Wolf Instruments/Thomas and Barbara Wolf
Jason Strudler
Mr. and Mrs. David Schraa
Margaret C. Jones
Mr. Gerald Murphy
Dr. Andrew Austin
Judith Canning
Anonymous
Mr. Anthony Rayner
Betsy Rosasco
Anonymous (4)
Friend
($99 or less)
Gail Addiss
Karen Babin
Pamela Brown
John Burkhalter
Marco Cagetti
Katharine Carney
Hector Carrero
Ms. Faya Causey
Dr. Marc Cavaillé-Coll
Ursula Cernuschi
Tiffany Lynn Chen
Cara Chrisman
Peter Clark
Michael Cole
Cynthia Danza
Morgan D. Delaney
Sarita Divakara
Claudia Encinas
Ana Escobar
Mrs. Ferhani
Camilla Galluzzo
Mr. Timothy R. Gaylard
Mr. Stephen Gilbert
Michael L. Godec and Suzanne Wells
Stephanie Hague
June Hargrove
Lawrence P. Hayes
Mr. and Mrs. Basil W. Henderson, Jr.
Paul J. Horowitz & Ruth E. Jaffe
Monika Kosior
Nora Lambert
Ms. Dawn Lille
Andrew Lokay
Liliane Marks
Michael Moise
Neil Nicastro
Richard O'Connell
Lois C. Padawer and Oscar A. Jaeger
Stephan Parker
Mr. Kenneth Pfaehler
Allan James Reiter
Linda and Duncan Rose
Mr. Erik Ryding and Ms. Rebecca Pechefsky
Moses Schapiro
Lisa Schlenker
Arlene Shcutz
Jaysel Shah
Ryan L. Silva-Masser
Ms. Angela Silverman
Eric Simpson
Steven Steinbach
Robin Strother
Ms. Kathy Truex
Lynn Trundle
Sara G. Wagschal and Jay M. Elinsky
Jacqueline Woody
Diana Zablocki
OPERA LAFAYETTE LEADERSHIP
Board of Directors
Co-Chair
Nizam Kettaneh*
Co-Chair
Ellen McCoy
Vice Chair
Ross Ain
Vice Chair
Adrienne Jamieson
Treasurer
Parker Jayne
Secretary
Pamela J. Hines
Founder & Artistic Director
Ryan Brown
Member-at-Large
Merri C. Moken*
Member-at-Large
Annelyse Allen*
Dorsey Dunn*
Jill Esterman*
Cheryl Gorelick
Stephen E. Kitchen
Susan A. Lynner
Ashwani Rajput
Daniel Thys*
JoAnn Willis
Life Members of the Board
Walter R. Arnheim
Yoko Arthur
Joel Brenner
Catia Z. Chapin*
Marie-Hélène Forget
Bill Gradison
J. Cari Elliott Gradison
Marifé Hernández*
Vivienne C. Lake*
Sophia Lynn
Chris O’Flinn
Daniel B. Silver**
Joan Simon
Brian Vogel
New York Advisory Committee
Janet Deforges
Francis Dubois
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt
Anne Mackinnon
Ishtar Méjanès
*Members of the New York Advisory Committee
**Deceased
OPERA LAFAYETTE ADMINISTRATION
Founder and Artistic Director
Ryan C. Brown
Artistic Director Designate
Patrick Dupre Quigley
Managing Director
Lisa Mion
Director of Artistic Administration
Alexis Aimé
Director of Finance and Operations
Kara Hess
Development and Communications Manager
Emily Bidinger
Celebrating a visionary.
Maestro Brown has built Opera Lafayette into a major cultural force, celebrated from the American shores all the way to the theatre at Versailles. This concert will focus on the music, the musicians, and the composers that Ryan Brown has championed during his 30-year tenure as Artistic Director. Help us rejoice in the rich and consequential history of The Nation’s Period Opera Company made possible through the revolutionary vision of Ryan Brown.
