Haymarket Opera Company World Premiere Recording Of Joseph Bologne's 'L'Amant Anonyme' To Air Nationwide

Haymarket Opera, Chicago's premier early opera company that presents historically informed performances played on 18th-century classical era instruments, brings a little-known masterpiece to a nationwide audience on Saturday, November 5 at 12:00 p.m. CT (*check local listings), when Chicago's WFMT Radio Network broadcasts the company's world-premiere recording of L'Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799).

A biracial man of French and African descent, Bologne rose to fame among the 18th-century European aristocracy as an accomplished swordsman, virtuosic violinist, and celebrated composer. This airing is a special preview broadcast in advance of the recording's February 10, 2023 release by Chicago-based Cedille Records - the first album to be funded, in part, by the newly established Ruth Bader Ginsburg Fund for Vocal Recordings at Cedille Records, honoring the late Justice's love of vocal music. Cedille Records' President, and the producer of this album, is the late Justice's son, James Ginsburg.

Premiered in 1780, L'Amant Anonyme was the most successful of Bologne's six operas and is the only one to survive to the present day. Based on a play by the composer's patroness Félicité de Genlis, who was a respected writer of the era, the work is an opéra comique in two acts composed in the then-popular style that mixed sung parts with spoken dialogue, dance, and more - a style most familiar to audiences today through the "Opéra Comique" version of Bizet's Carmen. All of these theatrical elements were present in Haymarket Opera Company's June 2022 production of L'Amant Anonyme ("as delightful a production of this neglected bonbon as one could imagine," Chicago Tribune), and all are represented on the upcoming album, recorded in sessions immediately following the run of live performances.

The cast is headlined by soprano Nicole Cabell in the lead role of Léontine, opposite tenor Geoffrey Agpalo as her secret admirer Valcour. Ms. Cabell, the 2005 winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, has appeared in opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Mr. Agpalo, a Chicago native, is also known to the city's audiences through appearances with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Additional highlights include roles at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Michigan Opera Theatre. Both singers made their company debuts in the live production of L'Amant Anonyme, with the Chicago Tribune praising Ms. Cabell's "expertly, convincingly shaded ... radiant soprano" and Mr. Agpalo's "hall-filling, bel canto sensibility ... his tenor plush, fluid, and lip-smackingly sweet." The cast also includes David Govertsen (Ophémon), Erica Schuller (Jeannette), Michael St. Peter (Colin), and Nathalie Colas (Dorothée). Company founder and artistic director Craig Trompeter leads the performance, conducting a 19-member contingent of the period-instrument Haymarket Opera Orchestra.

Hosted by WFMT's Lisa Flynn, the broadcast will feature interviews with Ms. Cabell, Mr. Trompeter, and company general director Chase Hopkins.

Joseph Bologne, also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was among the 18th century's most extraordinary musical figures. Not only was he a virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor, he was noted as one of the greatest swordsmen of his day and led numerous military campaigns as a high-ranking officer. Bologne was born in Guadeloupe to George Bologne, his Caucasian French father, and Nanon, his enslaved African mother. When his father was unjustly accused of murder, the family fled to France to avoid the younger Bologne being sold into slavery.

Within a few years, his prodigious athletic and musical talents took Paris by storm and he became a society celebrity. Despite the opposition of some overtly racist factions, he rose to great acclaim as a composer of instrumental music and opera. He knew many of the leading composers of the day, including Salieri, Gluck, and his neighbor (when in Paris) Mozart. He commissioned and conducted the premiere of Haydn's six Paris Symphonies. Bologne was also an active abolitionist and a champion of the French revolutionary cause. Although he was imprisoned for 18 months and sentenced to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, he was eventually exonerated and released. He died of gangrene at the age of 53.

Haymarket Opera Company inspires a culturally vibrant community and diversifies the artistic landscape of Chicago and the Midwest through the presentation of historically informed opera and oratorio from the Age of Enlightenment.

Haymarket Opera Company takes its name from both Chicago's Haymarket Affair of 1886 which gave focus to the world-wide labor movement, and from the King's Theatre in the Haymarket District of London where Handel produced his Italian operas.

For over ten years Haymarket Opera Company has enriched the musical community of Chicago and the Midwest with critically acclaimed performances of 17th- and 18th-century operas and oratorios using period instruments and historically informed staging conventions. It has produced more than twenty operatic productions and numerous concert performances. The company has received glowing reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Italy's L'Opera, Opera News, Early Music America, and more. The New York Times praised Haymarket's "finely played, carefully sung, lovingly detailed period performance."

During the recent shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Haymarket attracted national attention by offering audiences a complete season of filmed performances that reached more than 800,000 households. Alongside established cultural institutions including the Chicago Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Haymarket was listed as "Chicago's finest operatic event of 2021" by the Chicago Classical Review, and in the "Top 10 of 2021 for Classical Music, Jazz, and Opera" by the Chicago Tribune. In 2020, the company debuted on WFMT's historic Saturday Opera Radio Broadcast series alongside top opera companies around the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera House, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe Opera, and others. Pre-pandemic, Haymarket Opera Company was listed as one of the Chicago Sun Times's "Ten Best of the Decade" and in the Chicago Tribune's "Ten Best of 2019."

Learn more at haymarketopera.org.

The WFMT Radio Network has offered preeminent concerts, series, and specials to hundreds of radio stations around the world for over 40 years, with a large and invested network of affiliates who turn to them for top quality content. Current clients include the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and many other prestigious institutions who view the WFMT Radio Network as a key part of their branding and audience development.

Founded by James Ginsburg in 1989, Grammy Award-winning Cedille Records is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the most noteworthy classical artists in and from the Chicago area. The audiophile-oriented label releases every new album in multiple formats: physical CD; 96 kHz, 24-bit, studio-quality FLAC download; and 320 Kbps MP3 download. An independent nonprofit enterprise, Cedille Records is the label of Cedille Chicago, NFP. Cedille Records is distributed by Naxos of America and its distribution partners around the world.

To post a comment, you must register and login.