THE CHEVALIER (A PLAY WITH MUSIC)
by Bill Barclay
MUSIC BY
JOSEPH BOLOGNE, CHEVALIER de SAINT-GEORGES
Son of a slave and French aristocrat, Joseph Bologne has reached the top of his game – music teacher to Marie Antoinette and Europe’s fencer to beat. But when a bedridden Mozart is carried into his kitchen, he attracts the attention of a secret police force returning people of colour to slavery. As Paris hurtles toward Revolution, Bologne is forced to choose between his creative freedom and the crusade for equality. Can he sacrifice his bow for his sword? This is the true story of three immigrants – Marie Antoinette, Mozart, and the Chevalier – conflating the French Revolution with the resistance against authoritarianism unfolding today.
- Cast Size: 10M 5W
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
Order Digital Download (Will NOT download to phones, cannot be printed)
About the Playwright
Former Director of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe, Bill Barclay is Artistic Director of both Concert Theatre Works and Music Before 1800, NYC’s oldest early music presenter. Broadway and West End: Farinelli & The King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III, all starring Mark Rylance. MFA in Playwriting, Boston University.
Barclay is the creator of over 25+ plays with orchestra, including The Chevalier (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Center, Music of the Baroque, Harlem Chamber Players, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chautauqua, Caramoor, and others), Secret Byrd (St Martin-in-the-Fields and international 20 city tour), Peer Gynt (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra), and Antony & Cleopatra (LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra). He has been commissioned five times by The Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He has created works of concert-theatre in some of the world’s most iconic places: The Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Southbank Centre, Barbican, Washington National Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Hampton Court and Buckingham Palace. He has stage directed the Silkroad Ensemble on tour, conducted City of London Sinfonia on tour, and composed the historic Hamlet Globe-to-Globe which toured to every country on earth.
Review The Chevalier.