On February 6, 2025 the Folger’s virtual book club continues with a discussion of Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb. To prepare for the discussion, we have pulled together a list of resources related to Shakespeare, opera, and Morgiane, the first known opera by a Black American composer.
LEARN more about Black voices in classical music
- Podcast: Every Voice with Terrance McKnight
- Podcast: Melanated Moments in Classical Music
- African American Art Song Alliance
- Sphinx Music
DISCOVER Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane, displayed at the Folger through March 2, 2025
- A Lost Opera is Found: Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane
- Found: A Manuscript That Unlocks a Forgotten Black Composer’s World
- After 138 years, Black American composer Edmond Dédé gets his flowers
EXPLORE Shakespeare and opera
- Shakespeare and opera: Verdi, Rossini, and other composers inspired by the plays
- Bringing Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Operatic Heights
- Adapting Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ for opera
- Q&A: Allan Clayton on playing Hamlet in Brett Dean’s opera
- Venus and Adonis: The classical myth that inspired Shakespeare’s epic poem and John Blow’s 17th-century opera
- Shakespeare and opera: Jealousy and tragedy in Verdi’s Otello
- Verdi’s Macbeth: “The opera without a love affair!”
- Charles Gounod: The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in four beautiful duets
- A feast of Falstaff: Sir John in opera
LISTEN to related podcast episodes
- Episode 127: Shakespeare and Opera, with Colleen Fay
- Episode 191: Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera
- Episode 192: John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment
REVISIT past Folger programs exploring opera
- Folger Consort
- Folger Humanities
We would like to thank the following organization for its generous support of this program
Join us for a future event
Early Music Seminar: Virtuosos of Violin and Verse
Early Music Seminar: Virtuosos of Violin and Verse
Folger Consort Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein leads a lively virtual seminar that offers a sneak peek at the music performed in the Folger Consort’s upcoming concert Virtuosos of Violin and Verse.
Wed, Nov 5, 2025 at 6pm ET
Folger Book Club: 'You Dreamed of Empires' by Álvaro Enrigue
Folger Book Club: 'You Dreamed of Empires' by Álvaro Enrigue
The book club explores the 1519 meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma, presenting a hallucinatory, revelatory colonial revenge story.
Thu, Nov 6, 2025, 6:30pm
"Songs from a Medieval Winter" with Muco
"Songs from a Medieval Winter" with Muco
Experience renditions of ballads and verse around the theme of winter with Muco. Following a presentation, Muco will perform Middle-English secular lyrics and Old-English verse accompanied by the inanga, a zither from East Africa.
Wed, Nov 12, 2025 at 7pm ET
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