A new movie about Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, details the life of the late 18th-century biracial polymath across music, politics and the aristocratic circles of Paris and London. Directed by Canadian Stephen Williams,September and was released last month, is part of a broader wave of interest in the composer-artist-virtuoso that is inspiring a wholly overdue reckoning within the classical world.
That was only one instance of the racism Bologne would encounter throughout his short life. The Paris Opera, for instance, would have been under his directorship but for a petition by three company singers, who told Marie Antoinette they would not submit to the orders of a “mulatto.” Parallel to Bologne’s fame in Europe was a far uglier reality: Tens of thousands of African people were being trafficked to the French West Indies.