Tea at Trianon: Bill Barclay and ‘The Black Mozart’

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Bill Barclay and ‘The Black Mozart’

From The Bay State Banner:

Saint-Georges was Marie Antoinette’s personal music teacher, conducted one of the most successful orchestras in Europe, and was Mozart’s roommate for three critical months after Mozart’s mother had died. “We read these stories everyday about what’s happening to immigrant culture and immigrant identity, and I suddenly realized I had a story of three immigrants on my hands,” says Barclay, referring to Marie Antoinette and Mozart, both from Austria, and Saint-Georges from Guadalupe.

It’s the three months with Mozart that Barclay focuses on in his production. Did they get along? How did this stint impact each composer’s work? Did Saint-Georges leave his dishes in sink? These questions are lost to history, but Barclay imagines what the answers may be in a production that blends narration with actors, featuring Chukwudi Iwuji as Saint-Georges, the composer’s forgotten music, and narration by Barclay himself. (Read more.)

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