Some music reference books incorrectly state that Scott Joplin only wrote one opera, Treemonisha. In fact, he wrote two operas. He wrote the first one, A Guest of Honor, in 1903 and performed it in a tour of Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri with "Scott Joplin’s Rag-Time Opera Company." The tour ended quite suddenly and tragically when the troupe’s entire proceeds were stolen in Springfield, Illinois. Unfortunately, the score to A Guest of Honor has long been lost, although parts of the opera may have survived as independent works.

Joplin never managed to raise enough funds to support a complete performance of Treemonisha, his second opera. The closest he came was with a non-staged performance in Harlem for a few friends and potential backers. The opera tells the story of Treemonisha, a young African-American woman who becomes the leader of her community and uses her education to lead her people from darkness and superstition towards reason, and advocates non-violence. Treemonisha is quite likely based on Joplin’s second wife who had a great impact on his life and music. Very little is known about her, but it appears that she was well read, and a proponent of women’s rights and African-American culture. One can see why Joplin was unable to find any backers in 1911 for such a radical story.

T. J. Anderson orchestrated Treemonisha in the 1960’s and Gunther Schuller orchestrated it again in the 1970’s. Joplin won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1976, in part because of this opera and his special contribution to American music.

Joplin’s First Biography

Some music reference w orks contain significant errors regarding Joplin’s life and works. Many of these errors can be traced back to Joplin’s first biography, They All Played Ragtime, by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, which was published in 1950. This book rode in on the waves of the first ragtime revival (1940’s). It was an enthusiastic and respectful account, largely based on interviews with surviving ragtimers and their relatives — such as Joplin’s students, friends and family. Later research (1970’s-1990’s), however, uncovered numerous factual errors. Some of this was due to the faulty memories of the various old-timers who had been interviewed, and some of the errors were due to the biographers not digging deep enough. Many important sources of information on Joplin’s life, such as newspaper articles, were not even checked.

This biography did wonders for Joplin’s musical reputation at the time, but unfortunately it was extremely influential and became the definitive "source" for information on Joplin and ragtime. Many of the factual errors from this book have been perpetuated by being passed from book to book and thus continue to appear in reference works. A common error from this biography is the statement that Joplin was married twice. In fact, it appears that he married three times. His second wife died shortly after their marriage. She is very significant to the Joplin story, however, because the main character in Treemonisha was probably based on her.

(Source: King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era, by Edward A. Berlin, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.)