Review: 'Chevalier' has a lot to say, about race and class and talent, under its fancy French costumes.

In “Chevalier,” a juicy romance and a civil rights lesson are disguised as a flouncy historical period drama, and show there’s a lot more going on under those powdered wigs than you realize.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. stars in this “based on a true story” drama, as composer Joseph Bologne, a man of African heritage who in the late 1700s impresses the French aristocracy with his musical prowess — in the opening sequence, he challenges no less a figure than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Joseph Prowen) to a violin contest, and wins.

Bologne, we’re shown in flashbacks, was the illegitimate son of a nobleman who abandoned him in a French academy, where to survive he learned to be the best violinist and best swordsman in the school. His success leads no less a figure than Marie Antoinette, then the queen of France (and played by Lucy Boynton), to name him her champion — with the title Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Bologne becomes the toast of French society, even after learning that the father who abandoned him has died and left him with none of his fortune. What the father did leave is Bologne’s mother, Nanon (Ronke Adekoluejo), now freed from slavery. Nanon comes to Paris to live with her son, and she starts keeping house and keeping his secrets.

So sure of his musical abilities that he can turn down the sexual advances of the leading operatic diva, Madame La Guimard (Minnie Driver), Bologne seeks the job of directing the Paris Opera. He convinces Marie Antoinette to arrange a contest between Bologne and the Viennese composer Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), who is the favorite of the stodgy and bigoted elite. To win the contest, each man must compose and stage an opera, and a committee and Marie Antoinette will choose the winner.

As he organizes his opera, Bologne is determined to cast a young, dynamic soprano: Marie-Josephine de Montalembert (played by Samara Weaving, star of “Ready or Not” and the celebrity first victim in the recent “Scream VI”). Marie-Josephine wants to perform, but her rigid husband, Marquis de Montalembert (Marton Czokas), refuses to let his wife parade on the stage. But when the Marquis is sent away to war, Marie-Josephine figures what her husband doesn’t know won’t hurt him. But when the connection between Marie-Josephine and Bologne crosses from the rehearsal stage to the bedroom, Bologne is playing with fire.

Meanwhile, as we learn from the screenplay by Stefani Robinson (who has written episodes of “Atlanta” and “What We Do in the Shadows”), the people are protesting the monarchy — and the stirrings of revolution inspire Bologne and his music.

Director Stephen Williams — who has a deep resumé on prestige TV, including “Watchmen,” “Westworld” and “How to Get Away With Murder” — captures the satin-wrapped finery of pre-revolution France, and the rot of racism and hypocrisy lying under that fancy surface. He also recognizes that the movie needs to be a stage for Harrison (“Waves,” “Luce,” “It Comes at Night”), who channels Bologne’s confidence and restrained anger into a performance worthy of an opera of his own.

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‘Chevalier’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 21, in theaters. Rated PG-13 for thematic content, some strong language, suggestive material and violence. Running time: 107 minutes.