The Remarkable Life of A Superman Revisited

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George, was born on Christmas day, 1745, on the French-Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. His mother was a young Senegalese slave of remarkable beauty. Joseph's father, George de Bologne Saint-George, was a wealthy sugar plantation owner and a former "Gentleman in the King's Chamber" in the court of Louis XVI, King of France.

Musically Saint-George may very well have been the "King of Pop" of his age; militarily he helped prevent what could have been the early collapse of the French Revolution. The vicissitudes of his journey are dramatic: from a young outsider in Paris to the dizzying heights of superstardom in pre-Revolutionary France, to an utterly tragic end. In his lifetime Saint George was an elite musketeer of the King's Horse Guard; a master-swordsman and Europe's fencing champion; a composer, violin impresario, and opera director that influenced Mozart; Queen Marie-Antoinette's music teacher and confidant; a playboy whose inner circle included the author of Valmont; and a military hero who championed the French Revolution. That Saint-George was all of these in an age when slavery was endemic and white superiority was dogma, is beyond extraordinary and the height of irony.

Despite his Herculean accomplishments, Saint George -a man whose company was once fought over by royalty and great aristocrats- died alone, unmarried and destitute in 1799. The tragedy deepened: instead of being celebrated, in 1802 after the reinstitution of slavery in France by Napoleon, Saint-George's music was banned, and many of his scores were destroyed. Yet, Saint-George lives. Like a Phoenix, two centuries later, the indomitable Chevalier has risen from the ashes as music lovers and historians have rediscovered him. In February 2002, the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe renamed a street in the memory of the Chevalier de Saint-George, restoring his stature to one of a legendary statesman >>