Resource Guide: 'Symphony of Secrets' by Brendan Slocumb

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
  • Measure for Measure + Dido and Aeneas: A Shakespeare-opera mash-up from 1699 takes the stage
• Folger Humanities
  • Written by a Lady