CLASSICAL
The Black composer who made Mozart jealous.
The improbable details of Joseph Bologne’s life make him seem more like a character out of a novel. He actually was, too, as the subject of Roger de Beauvoir’s “Le Chevalier de Saint-George.” Published in 1840, the novel took its name from the title bestowed upon Bologne by King Louis XV.
To be sure, Bologne (sometimes spelled Boulogne) was very real. He was a dashing swordsman, gifted athlete, valiant soldier, and brilliant musician and composer who became a sensation in 18th-century France. He was also Black.
Beyond those broad strokes, a pinch of salt is necessary — but Bologne’s story is no less compelling for being partially, possibly, apocryphal.
“What is known is scantily and contradictorily documented, when not purely anecdotal,” the New York Times wrote back in June, shortly after news broke that Searchlight Pictures is developing a film based on Bologne’s life to be written by Stefani Robinson (“Atlanta”) and directed by Stephen Williams (HBO’s “Watchmen”).
The wonder is that it took this long. Bologne is a fascinating character. He was born out of wedlock in the Caribbean islands of Guadaloupe around 1745. His father belonged to the aristocracy; his mother was enslaved. He moved to France about 10 years later, where, thanks to his father’s connections, the young Bologne became a chamberlain to Louis XV.
He first made waves in French society with his swordsmanship, which earned Bologne the nickname “the god of arms.” At one point, he was thought to be the nation’s best fencer; the visiting John Adams wrote, “he will hit the button, any button, on the coat or waistcoat of the greatest Masters.” He was also a celebrated swimmer, boxer, marksman and dancer.
Bologne’s musical talents, meanwhile, supposedly drove Mozart into fits of jealousy. His skills on violin and harpsichord won him a spot in one of France’s most prestigious orchestras, the Concert des Amateurs; soon enough, he became its musical director. He commissioned several symphonies from Franz Josef Haydn, which became known as the “Paris” symphonies, and was Marie Antoinette’s music tutor for a spell.
But as successful as Bologne was, he also faced real discrimination. Under the so-called Code Noir, an array of restrictions on people of color in France, Black people were required to register
with the police, among other indignities. King Louis XVI nominated Bologne to become director of the Paris Opera in 1776, but some members of the company vetoed the idea because they refused to, they said, “submit to the orders of a mulatto.”
“Historically, it was absolutely more difficult for people of color to get work, or to be taken seriously, or to be seen as more than a novelty,” says Rebecca Zabinski, Houston Symphony’s director of artistic planning. “So I think that probably created a barrier there, because people seemed to treat the chevalier like a sensation.
“His music was wonderful, but also everybody’s talking about his sword skills and all of these other things,” she adds. “So I think that probably his race prevented him from being taken seriously as an artist and having more consistent support (from) people who wanted to keep his music (around).”
Demeaning nickname
Bologne went on to lead a regiment of Black soldiers during the French Revolution. He eventually fell out of favor with the court and died, penniless, in 1799. Because he lacked the kind of royal patronage or other sponsorship that might have better kept his music in circulation, only a few of his compositions have survived into the present day.
One that has is the Symphony No. 2 in D Major, which also served as the overture to Bologne’s opera “L’Amat anonyme” — and which the Houston Symphony will perform alongside Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony this weekend.
According to Zabinski, Bologne’s music compares favorably with his far better-known contemporaries Mozart and Haydn. His style carries all the hallmarks of the era, especially his string parts — “I think you can hear his proclivity for stringwriting especially,” she says.
“I think it’s just a really lovely way to tie the program together and, you know, showcase some lesser-known parts of (a) period that’s so familiar,” adds Zabinski. “Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ is such a masterpiece, and one of the most well-known works in the repertoire, and there’s no reason that this charming overture shouldn’t be as well-known. It’s a great little work.”
The specter of Mozart so completely haunts his achievements that, in more recent times, Bologne has been saddled with the demeaning nickname of “Black Mozart.” Nothing could be further from the truth, argues Zabinski.
“It minimizes his achievements and everything that makes him unique,” she says. “He just happened to be working at the same time as Mozart and composing in the same style. He had been doing his own thing before he ever met Mozart and before Mozart came to Paris, and it just seems sort of like Mozart happened across this guy who really had it going on.”
Mozart’s revenge?
Legend has it that Mozart, who had a frustrating experience in Paris while Bologne’s influence at court was at its zenith, created the villainous “Magic Flute” character of Monostatos to get back at Bologne. Traditionally depicted as a Moor who lusts after the heroine Pamina, the Queen of the Night’s daughter, Monostatos eventually swears allegiance to the queen — a possible swipe at Bologne’s once-close relationship with Marie Antoinette.
“I mean, on the surface, it sure seems like something Mozart might have done,” says Zabinski. “He did know this guy, and he really was jealous, and with that kind of fire in him, it definitely seems plausible. Who’s to say, but it’s definitely an interesting theory, and an interesting story, and fits right in with the lore of Mozart.
“And also the lore of the chevalier,” she adds. “These are two fascinating guys — I wouldn’t put anything past either of them, you know?”
The violent, treacherous Monostatos presents modern opera companies with one of Mozart’s most problematic characters; some productions have even removed librettist Emanuel Schikaneder’s explicit references to race. (“Magic Flute” has also long been criticized as misogynist.) But as performing-arts organizations continue reckoning with centuries of inequity and racism, largely unsung figures like Bologne are ripe for rediscovery.
“I think that it’s really important as we think of the classical canon and how tied it is to white male power,” says Zabinski. “It makes perfect sense to try to shine a light on the exceptions to that rule — to women, to people of color like the chevalier, to people who are a little different than the faces that we traditionally think of in classical music.”
But correcting a grievous historical oversight is one thing. Now that the ground has finally begun to shift, preventing those lapses from recurring is an entirely different challenge.
“Who is (out) there today that is a chevalier that just has a couple of barriers in their path, and they could achieve so much if it weren’t for that?” wonders Zabinski. “I think there (are) far too many people for whom that’s the case — it makes it important for us to try to level the playing field, so that the next chevalier isn’t forgotten and can achieve everything that he or she is meant to achieve.”