ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
The search for Creole Composers of Color Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé, who were long hidden in history and who with premieres of their never published works put a new spin on classical and operatic music.

SYNOPSIS
WHAT WE CAN KNOW ABOUT EDMOND AND BASILE is a story of a resurrection. Its stars are 19th century New Orleans composers Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé.

Barès and Dédé were Creoles of Color—Dédé a free man, Barès born into enslavement. From the tail end of slavery through the Civil War, Reconstruction and the beginning of racial segregation Barès and Dédé wrote and performed operas, concert pieces, and dances popular with black and white audiences. Against the immeasurable pressures of racial injustice they achieved artistic greatness, challenging the long-held and still wide-spread notion that classical European music has been an exclusively white domain.

Yet, since their lifetime, many of Barès’ and Dede’s compositions have not been performed for an audience, and some have never been presented to the public. A group of New Orleans musicians, spearheaded by the ensemble OperaCreole, are now resurrecting their work.

Pianist Oscar Rossignoli presents concerts of Basile Barès’ dances and OperaCréole in collaboration with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is staging the premiere of Edmond Dédé’s opus magnus, the opera “Morgiane” at St. Louis Cathedral.

From rehearsals to costume fittings WHAT WE CAN KNOW ABOUT EDMOND AND BASILE documents the path to these premieres as a springboard into the composers’ extraordinary lives and the past Creole world. Along way, the film meets with Dede’s and Barès’ descendants, an art collector of Creole paintings, a piano tuner who has made surprising discoveries about Barès, and historians who dig deep into the hidden histories of Edmond and Basile.

The film’s search for these once popular musicians opens up a little known chapter of American history puts an entirely new spin on classical and operatic music.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Sascha Just
PRODUCER Sascha Just

WEBSITE saschajust.com/featured_item/edmond-basile

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