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The Atlanta Opera’s production of The Anonymous Lover last weekend in the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College was a window into the work of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George, an unfairly forgotten Black composer and the racial attitudes of his time.
Bologne has had a well-deserved resurgence in popularity in recent years. In part, it’s due to a belated recognition among classical musicians and organizations that all but the so-called “genius dead White men” composers have long been underrepresented on stage. There also is recognition that new audiences can be found by expanding the repertoire. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, for example, performed a violin concerto by Bologne in 2021.
His resurgence might become a popular movement with the upcoming film Chevalier starring Kevin Harrison Jr. in the titular role. Bringing to light centuries of lost and forgotten composers — by people of color, by women, by those marginalized in art as in society– is an ongoing effort. In Bologne’s case the fact that he was a Black man in two White men’s worlds — classical music and the French aristocracy — adds extra weight to his captivating backstory.
Bologne was born in Guadeloupe in 1745, the son of a French plantation owner and an enslaved woman of Senegalese origin. At the age of eight, he was sent to France by his father to be educated. As a young adult, he received considerable renown as a champion fencer.
It sent shockwaves through French society when the famed fencer turned up on stage with Les Concerts des Amateurs in 1772 as a violin soloist, performing two violin concerti that he had composed. A year later, he was named the orchestra’s conductor and it became regarded as the finest ensemble in Paris. Bologne was championed by Marie Antoinette.
When the orchestra eventually ran into financial difficulties and disbanded, Bologne applied to become music director of the Paris Opera. He withdrew his application when a handful of company members said they were unwilling to work for a man of mixed race.
Not much is known about Bologne’s training as a violinist or composer. But he was a prolific composer of string quartets, violin concertos and symphonies concertante. Later in his music career, he turned to composing operas.
What makes Bologne’s story so powerful is the blatant racial component and his music’s reemergence at a time when today’s society endeavors to shine a light on those creatives whose work was unfairly dismissed by the biases of history. It was fitting that The Atlanta Opera staged The Anonymous Lover on the campus of a historically Black college.
Bologne was lauded as the “Black Mozart” even while still alive. That’s certainly high praise, though it still casts him in a secondary light rather than allowing his talents to blossom into their own unique context.
From a stylistic standpoint the comparison is fairly accurate — Bologne had that same flair for the whimsical and the lighthearted that’s made Mozart such an enduring favorite. Nevertheless, the differences quickly become apparent: where Mozart delighted in attaching endlessly intricate accompanying phrases to his primary melody lines, Bologne was happy to have the ensemble focus primarily on chordal accompaniment and allow the melody to come to the foreground. The result is ideal for the opera format and aids in drawing attention to the unfolding action.
The story of The Anonymous Lover is, for the most part, similarly lighthearted with a heavy emphasis on romance and comedy. Set in the world of the 18th century French leisure class, the narrative tells of a young man, Valcour, who pines after the widowed Léontine. He forestalls his fear of rejection by sending her anonymous gifts and messages. It is a charming story and one that was clearly written to be fun and uplifting.
The roles of Valcour and Léontine are handled by Frederick Ballentine and Marietta native Maria Valdes, respectively, and both were a pleasure to watch and hear. They each brought tremendous energy and shared an enthusiastic sort of high energy chemistry. Their voices are both stellar; there was a sense of youthfulness about them — an over- accentuation of the vibrato and other pronounced affectations — that indicated their full potential is still developing.
The production played to The Atlanta Opera’s usual strength for balancing the dazzling with the economical. A French drawing room backdrop served as the foundation for a wide range of settings courtesy of roll-on set pieces and clever lighting techniques. This, coupled with the majestically variegated costume designs of Ari Fulton made for a sumptuous — and at times almost psychedelic — viewing experience.
From a staging standpoint, the production made liberal use of having cast members enter and leave scenes by walking through the audience. It’s a common enough theatrical device; it was jarring to the suspension of disbelief, however, to see what was supposed to be a French nobleman from the 1700s standing in the aisle under a bright red and thoroughly modern “EXIT” sign.
The Anonymous Lover certainly works on its own as a simple and efficient rom-com, but this production went a bit deeper by adding snippets of Bologne’s own writings and correspondences to further flesh out the world of the story. Ballentine served a dual role both as Valcour and Bologne himself. Bologne was a passionate man filled with fire and fury at racial injustice. Within the context of a romantic comedy, the additions felt disjointed.
Overall, however, The Atlanta Opera’s take on The Anonymous Lover offered an enjoyable introduction to a man whose work is more than due for a return to public awareness.
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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.
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