Mademoiselle Desseria Plato

The details concerning Desseria Plato's career are not known. However, when she attracted attention she did so on a grand scale. During the last decade of the 19th century Plato was making a name for herself as a concert singer. In Signor A Farini's Grand Creole and Colored Opera and Concert Company she was billed as a "prima donna mezzo-soprano." With Farini's company she sang the role of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Union Square Theatre in New York. As a substitute for Sissieretta Joyner (Black Patti), at a concert given on Colored American Day (August 23, 1893) at the Chicago World's Fair, she again gained much attention. In 1896 Plato joined John Isham's Oriental American Company. She died in 1907.

Source: Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians,' by Eileen Southern