Two Black classical composers hidden in history. Two world premieres. A resurrection and a journey into New Orleans’ Creole past that changes history.
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 pressures of racial injustice they challenged the still wide-spread notion that classical European music has been an exclusively white domain. Yet, since their lifetime, their compositions have not been performed, and some have never been presented to the public. New Orleans musicians spearheaded by OperaCréole, pianist Oscar Rossignoli, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra are now resurrecting their long lost compositions with premieres of Barès’ unpublished dances and Dédé’s grand opera “Morgiane” at St. Louis Cathedral.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 long buried Creole culture. 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.
More than portraying artists who finally receive the recognition they deserve, What We Can Know About Edmond and Basile both expands a limited view of (music-)history and confront us with the uncertainties of history.
World Premiere - New Orleans Film Festival 2025
