Emperor Bokassa might have been a cannibal but his coronation music is worth a listen

If being asked to write music for the coronation of a king is an honour, then doing it for an emperor is even more so, you might think. That was certainly the view of Jean-François Le Sueur (1760-1837), an opera composer who was made director of music at Notre-Dame by Napoleon. At the self-coronation of the ‘Emperor of the French’ in 1804, two choirs and orchestras performed pieces by Le Sueur, who dined out on it for the rest of his life.

Fortunately for him, the French authorities, perhaps keen to forget the vulgar spectacle, never got round to clarifying who wrote what. So, years later, Le Sueur gilded the lily: he lumped together all the coronation music, including a Mass and Te Deum by the safely dead Paisiello, into an ‘oratorio’ under his own name, implying that he’d written everything. The truth didn’t emerge until the early 20th century.

On the other hand, not every composer of imperial music has wanted to capitalise on it. For example, a piece entitled La Marche Du Sacre De S.M. L’empereur Bokassa 1er barely features in its composer’s discography, despite being written for the most extravagant imperial coronation of the 20th century, at which the emperor, flanked by guards in Napoleonic uniforms, sat on a bronze throne weighing two tons and then threw a banquet at which guests were served 24,000 bottles of champagne and specially prepared meat.

Human meat, possibly. The ‘emperor’ was Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who occupied the throne of the Central African Empire from 1977 until his overthrow in 1979, when his country reverted to its old name of Central African Republic. Bokassa was rumoured to be an enthusiastic cannibal who enjoyed serving human remains to unsuspecting visitors including his ally President Giscard, who wasn’t at the coronation but sent one of his ministers dressed as the Napoleonic commander Marshal Ney.