James Conlon leads LA Opera’s virtual production of pioneering Black composer Joseph Bologne’s The Anonymous Lover; available for free on-demand streaming.  Register and watch on LA Opera’s website here.

Continuing his mission of resurrecting neglected repertoire, James Conlon leads LA Opera’s West Coast premiere of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’s opera The Anonymous Lover. Though Joseph Bologne’s instrumental music has received renewed attention in recent decades, his one surviving complete opera has gone nearly unheard since its premiere in 1780. For this production Mr. Conlon conducts from the newly created, first critical edition of the score and also chose to incorporate an aria from the composer’s 1777 opera Ernestine, which survives incomplete. In terms of the libretto, which had been based on a play by Félicité de Genlis, Mr. Conlon collaborated with director Bruce Lemon, Jr., who created the production’s socially distanced staging, and dramaturg Dr. Ariane Helou to restore to the opera’s spoken dialogue the female perspective of the original play.

James Conlon also provides background on the composer and his music in his article here.