Fiddling Around with “Chevalier”

Many of today’s storytellersseem to be trying hard to make amends for historical oversights. See TV’spopular Bridgerton, which whimsically insists (based on somedubious historical rumors) that QueenCharlotte, consort of George III, was of Black African descent.  

I never saw Belle, the2013 British drama, which embroiders the details of the actual life of aneighteenth-century young woman. History says she was welcomed into thehousehold of an English aristocrat because she was the mixed-race daughter ofhis nephew and an enslaved African woman living in the Wests Indies. We knowabout Belle through a 1779 painting, commissioned by the First Earl ofMansfield, showing her and his own daughter as well-dressed youthfulcompanions. But few details of her adult life are available, and so thefilmmakers were free to invent a story that coincides with Britain’s 1807abolition of the slave trade.  

Then there’s the fascinating2022 film, Chevalier, about an 18th century musician who becamea major figure in his own day. Joseph Bologne, who was later granted the titleChevalier de Saint-Georges, was born in Guadeloupe, the son of a French planterand a 17-year-old slave of African descent. An unusually gifted child, Joseph wassent to France to be educated, excelling in fencing, shooting, horsemanship,and above all music. A violinist from an early age,  he developed a great deal of confidence in histalents. (The film shows him, as a young man, interrupting a concerto performedby the visiting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in order to suggest that the two performthe piece side by side, in a kind of classical fiddle-off. Which they do, withdazzling results.)_

 Among the aristocracy of 18thcentury France, Bologne was alternately viewed as a genius and a fraud, an“upstart Mulatto” and something of a sex symbol. At least, he was a greatfavorite of Queen Marie Antoinette, who attended many performances of his work.By this time, he was busily composing violin sonatas, chamber pieces,symphonies concertantes, and comic operas, sometimes for his own orchestras,while also taking time out to defeat local fencing masters who had sneered athis racial heritage. In 1776, he lost the prestigious post of orchestra conductorat the Paris Opera when some of the players refused to perform under hisdirection.  

 I gather the historicalrecord has little to say about his love life. Not surprisingly, the movie makesup for this omission. Though Bologne (rising American actor Kelvin HarrisonJr.) is handsome and hunky, it is made clear that he’s resigned to never marrying.As we’re told, his marriage to a white woman would have then been illegal underFrench law. And if he were to wed a Black woman, he’d have to forfeit hismuch-prized title. That doesn’t stop him, though, from having a torrid affairwith a beautiful and talented aristocrat (Samara Weaving), whose powerfulhusband doesn’t want her singing in public. Alas, it doesn’t end well.

 The film fades out, circa1789. as revolutionary forces arise to take on the power of the Frenchmonarchy. Bologne, who has learned (partly through his spirited mother) tovalue the Black side of his inheritance, has a small moment of triumph, onethat’s probably too theatrical to be true. But we do know, via an on-screenlegend, that he went on to serve as a colonel in the Légion St.-Georges, comprised of “citizensof color” fighting in opposition to the Bourbon status quo. There was clearly alot more to his life than was seen in the movie. Maybe there’s a plan for asequel?