[Maestro
Marlon Daniel; Un
contemporain atypique de Mozart: Le Chevalier de Saint-George;
Michelle Garnier-Panafieu; YP Éditions (2011)]
The
life, fencing and music of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)
are presented at AfriClassical.com. On Dec. 25, 1745, a slave on a
Caribbean plantation gave birth to a boy whose father was a French
nobleman who owned the plantation. Many children were born on
plantations in such circumstances, but young Joseph de Bologne was
taken to France and given the education of an aristocrat.
His boarding school combined academics with first-class training in fencing, and he attended from ages 13 to 19.
Joseph showed exceptional talent in fencing, and for a time was
considered the best fencer in France. As a young adult he turned to
music, first as a violinist and soon after as a composer and
conductor as well.
On
April 26, 2011 AfriClassical announced the debut of Un contemporain
atypique de Mozart (An Atypical Contemporary of Mozart): Le Chevalier
de Saint-George, written by Michelle Garnier-Panafieu. The book
received its debut on April 27, 2011 as part of the International
Saint-Georges Festival in Guadeloupe, where Le Chevalier de
Saint-Georges was born. Professor Michelle Garnier-Panafieu is a
Musicologist at Université Rennes II.
We
were keenly aware of the author's specialized knowledge of the music
of Saint-George and his contemporaries. She had written, for
example, the lengthy and scholarly liner notes for the Avenira
release, Le
Chevalier de Saint-George: The Complete Symphonies Concertantes On 2
CDs.
We invited Prof. Garnieer-Panafieu to summarize her findings for
inclusion on the Saint-Georges page at AfriClassical.com. She
graciously did so. The longtime French translator of the
Saint-Georges page, Daniel Marciano, offered to translate the summary
into English, with the assistance of his American-born wife Carol.
The summary can be found at No. 51 in the Table of Contents of the
Saint-Georges Biography page.
AfriClassical
learned of Un
contemporain atypique de Mozart
from Jean-Claude Halley, a Guadeloupe resident and blogger who is
President of the Saint-Georges Association. It was he who first
provided us with access to a lavishly illustrated catalog for an
exhibition on Saint-Georges in Guadeloupe. Monsieur Halley has been
an invaluable resource ever since.
The first International
Saint-Georges Festival in Guadeloupe was established under applicable
law by Jean-Claude Halley, President of the Festival Association, and
Catherine Pizon, its Executive Director. Daniel Marciano says of
Catherine Pizon: “She
is a theatre and music lover and a very efficient artistic director.”
Madame Pizon's involvement in theatrical fencing has continued after
the Festival.
The
American conductor Marlon Daniel was responsible for the music at the
Festival. Maestro Daniel was warmly received by those in attendance,
including the local press. He is already working on plans for a 2012
Festival.
Violinist
and author Gabriel Banat is author of The
Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow (2006),
which we regard as the most authoritative English-language biography
of Saint-Georges. This year he launched his own website, as we wrote
on Oct. 16, 2011:
Here
are links to some of the other top Saint-Georges stories of 2011:
Jean-Claude
Halley announced the book of Prof. Michelle Garnier-Panafieu on April
26, 2011:
A
post on April 30, 2011 told of the first performance of OperaCréole,
founded in New Orleans by Givonna Joseph:
For
many years, the author, writer, playwright and former Professor
Daniel Marciano has generously donated translations to the
Saint-Georges Biography page and several other pages of
AfriClassical.com. On May 15, 2011 we posted about the fencing program at the Festival, which he directed:
We
received several press clippings about Maestro Marlon Daniel, as we
posted May 14, 2011:
Marlon Daniel was 'Fabulous!' at opening concert of International Saint-Georges Festival April 30
Prof.
Michelle Garnier-Panafieu, author of Un contemporain
atypique de Mozart, writes a
comment in French, which we translate as follows:
“Thank
you for your initiative and your comments. To provide complete
information to your readers, I suggest adding the two concerts given
during the International Week of the Saint-Georges Festival.
Programs were written by me, laid out by Catherine Pizon and edited
by CCSBT. Here are the two programs:
-
April 29, 2011, 8 p.m., Basse-Terre
Cathedral: Saint-Georges, Symphony in G
Major, Opus 11, 1779; Bortnynansky, Hymn
of the Cherubim; Fauré Requiem,
Opus 48, 1888. Festival Orchestra and Choir: Marlon Daniel,
conductor; Luigi Greco, conductor; Magali Léger, soprano; Paul
Gigue, baritone; Koh Gabriel Kameda, violin.
-
April 30, 2011, 8:30 p.m., Art'Chipel,
From Saint-Georges to Mozart: Lyric
Theatre and Instrumental Music.
Saint-Georges, extracts from L'Amant
anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) and
Concerto for Violin, Opus
2, No. 2, 1773; Mozart: Aria
for soprano (accompanied by strings, two oboes and two horns): 'Voi
avete un cor fedele' K. 217, 1775, and Symphony
No. 29 K. 201/186a, 1774. Festival
Orchestra conducted by Marlon Daniel; Magali Léger, soprano; Koh
Gabriel Kameda, violin.”
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