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Act One
With the vanishing of the name, goes the disappearance of the object, the slice of art, the fragment of literature, the portion of music. With the fading of the thing, so the name is gradually effaced from memory, and whatever there was, becomes anonymous. I have long taken a special interest in music by composers whose names…
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Act Two
He was very well known in his time and then, after his death, gradually forgotten. This was partially due to a change in musical tastes, largely affected by the aftermath of the French Revolution. But unquestionably, racial prejudice played an important role in the long-term fate of his works. One contemporary critic (may he remain anonymous) serves as an onerous example of that bigotry: “It’s as if nature served the mulatto in a particular fashion, lending them…
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Act Three
They met when the younger Mozart came to Paris in 1778 for the third time. It is a matter of record that they both lived and dined under the same roof from July 5 (two days after Mozart’s mother Anna Maria died) until September 11. They were lodged together in the home of the Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm, a critic and Bavarian friend of Leopold Mozart…
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Act Four
Saint-Georges’ biography has been complicated by an abundance of second- (and even third-) hand impressions, a romanticized novel from the 19th century, and even in recent years a French movie. Some commentators have been moved to see The Anonymous Lover in semi-autobiographical terms, imagining the composer as the male protagonist. There are no letters nor any evidence of Saint-Georges’ private life, but it is assumed that he had a very…