What a can of worms “authenticity” is. Luigi Cherubini’s stately yet incendiary Médée (1797) was known only to antiquarians when Maria Callas breathed new fire into the opera in the mid 20th century—but she performed it in Italian rather than French. Of course, this revival by the French period band Le Concert de la Loge reverts to French, and we’ll just finesse the vexed subject of the recitatives Callas sang in place of the dialogue spoken at the premiere. Marina Rebeka, at her best a singing artist of searing intensity, follows in Callas’s footsteps as the barbarian sorceress driven to murder the children of the Greek for whom she has sacrificed everything. Stylistically, the performance promises to deliver a very high standard. Le Concert de la Loge, founded a decade ago by the violinist Julien Chauvin, takes its name from the symphonic society Le Concert de la Loge Olympique of the 1780s, which was obliterated by the French Revolution. In its brief glory, the orchestra ranked as one of the finest in Europe, renowned for commissioning the six “Paris” symphonies of Franz Josef Hadyn, far and away the most renowned composer of his time. Of related interest, the society’s principal conductor was the Guadeloupe native Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges—forgotten for centuries but now enjoying a remarkable revival as much for his life story as for his music. The son of a Creole mother enslaved by a French plantation owner, he was sent to France at age seven. There he carved out a niche as a violin virtuoso, preceptor to Marie Antoinette, composer much in favor with the court, whiz-bang fencer, and military officer of distinction. His sobriquet “the Black Mozart,” which is frowned upon today, had the virtue of suggesting what his music sounds like—and as it happens, Bologne and Mozart may well have met in Paris at a time when Bologne was the court favorite Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges and the ex-child prodigy Mozart, 10 years his junior, couldn’t get arrested. And if you’re wondering how come Le Concert de la Loge crosses out the Masonic-sounding qualifier Olympique in its promotional materials, it’s Chauvin’s witty revenge on the French National Olympic Sports Committee, which threatened the musicians with legal action. Can’t help thinking about the time Disney hassled a Pinocchio-themed mom-and-pop lobster shack named Geppetto’s for copyright infraction, or was it unfair competition? Boo on bullies! —Matthew Gurewitsch