Detailing the volatile relationship between the black violinist George Bridgetower and Beethoven, this is a "masterful collection" (Los Angeles Times).
The son of a white woman and an “African Prince,” George Polgreen Bridgetower (1780–1860) travels to Vienna to meet “bad-boy” genius Ludwig van Beethoven. The great composer’s subsequent sonata is originally dedicated to the young mulatto, but George, exuberant with acclaim, offends Beethoven over a woman. From this crucial encounter evolves a grandiose yet melancholy poetic tale. A New Yorker's A Year's Reading; Booklist Editors Choice Award.
- Henryk M. Broder, "Beethoven, die Star-Poetin und die Bridgetower-Sonate," Kultur, Der Spiegel, March 29, 2009 (in German).
- Teresa Wiltz, "How Beethoven Killed Black Classical Music," The Root, April 29, 2009.
- Excerpt from Sonata Mulattica, NPR, May 29, 2009.
- Essay on Sonata Mulattica in Poets' Quarterly, July 11, 2013.
Reviews
- The New York Times (April 2, 2009)
- The New Yorker (April 27, 2009)
- Anis Shivani, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 10, 2009)
- Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times (May 17, 2009)
- Opera News (June 2010)
- Mark Doty, O Magazine
Interviews
- Rita Dove on Talking Volumes, May 15, 2009. Recorded at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 11.
- Rita Dove on Woman's Hour, BBC, May 20, 2009.
- Rita Dove on The Diane Rehm Show, May 25, 2009.
- “Rita Dove Discusses a Musical Life in Verse.” In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and former National Poet Laureate, speaks with Maryland Poet Laureate Stanley Plumly about her book Sonata Mulattica. This conversation took place October 22, 2014.