The opera, composed by Scott Joplin in the early years of the twentieth century, was not given its world premiere until 1972, when it was premiered by the Afro-American Music Workshop of Morehouse College in Atlanta. The orchestrations were made by T. J. Anderson and conducted by Robert Shaw. Joplin's original orchestrations were lost. American composer-conductor Gunther Schuller provided another orchestration based on Scott Joplin's original piano/vocal score for the Houston Grand Opera production in 1975.