With respect to the biographical video accounts of Bologne’s life and Wikipedia’s entry, I would situate myself between the two. However, I have to state that it is amazing that the black Mozart should have influenced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is equally amazing that as the Director of the Concert de la Loge Olympique, he should have commissioned Symphonies from Franz Joseph Haydn (31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809), the famous “Paris Symphonies” (1785-1786), and premièred them.
The Chevalier de Saint-George was an esteemed composer and conductor as well as a virtuoso violinist. Moreover, he was an accomplished swordsman and equestrian. He was admired by George IV of England, the Prince of Wales, which is not a trivial detail. Would that Saint-George had fled to England rather than join the French army when the French Revolution started to spin out of control.
In Wikipedia’s entry on Joseph Bologne, mention is made of “a famous portrait of him [Saint-George] crossing swords in an exhibition match with the French transvestite spy-in-exile, the Chevalier d’Éon, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, Britain’s future king George IV.” The famous portrait is the above “satire.”
Photo credit: Wikipedia
Allow me to begin this post by speaking of the two Mozarts: the white Mozart or Amadeus, and the black Mozart, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George.
When Mozart, the white Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was in Paris, in 1777-1778, he was influenced by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George. One would expect the white Mozart to have influenced the black Mozart, but that was not the case. However, the two differ in that the career of the black Mozart (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799) was affected by his ethnicity and the French Revolution. Three divas opposed his appointment as director of the Royal Opera because he was a mulatto.
However, by then, Joseph had commissioned and premièred Haydn six “Paris Symphonies” and he had met the white Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus during his 1777-1778 visit to Paris. It is during his stay in Paris that the former Wolfgang Theophilus, the white Mozart, lost his mother. She had accompanied him on this tour, but was taken ill and died on 3 July 1778. Wolfgang was 22 at that time and Joseph, 33.
However the French Revolution all but destroyed Joseph whose patrons were Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. As we know, he was Marie-Antoinette’s music teacher. Marie-Antoinette composed “C’est mon ami,” a lovely pastoral song.
Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: L’amant anonyme (1780),
Ballet Nº 1
Begonia, by Paul-Émile Borduas, 14 January 1924
Paul-Émile Borduas (November 1, 1905 – February 22, 1960)
Photo credit: National Gallery of Canada
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