Black Excellence: Edmond Dédé
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_D%C3%A9d%C3%A9
Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901)[a] was an American musician and composer. A free-born Creole, he moved to Europe in 1855. He worked in Bordeaux for more than forty years, first as assistant conductor at the Grand Théâtre and then as a conductor of orchestras at other local theaters.
His compositions include works for orchestra and for various voices with orchestra or piano, as well as an opera Morgiane, for which the score was unknown until 2007. Morgiane is the earliest known opera by an African American composer.[3] It received its first complete concert performances in February 2025.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-4868011/oldest-black-american-opera-premiere
Until recently, the music of Morgiane only existed in a single handwritten manuscript.
Composer Edmond Dédé, a Black American living in exile in France, completed the nearly 550-page score in 1887. He thought of it as his greatest achievement. But the four-act, French grand opera based on themes from the folktale “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” would never be performed in his lifetime. Instead the manuscript was tucked away and nearly forgotten.