Le médecin malgré lui, libretto, 1858

Le médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in spite of himself; sometimes also called The Mock Doctor) is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Molière's play of the same name. The work premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 15 January 1858.^[1]

Performance history

As the work uses spoken dialogue and verse taken directly from Molière's play, the Comédie-Française tried unsuccessfully to block performance of the opera.^[2] It was revived at the Opéra-Comique in 1872, 1886, 1902 and 1938; was seen in Hamburg, Stockholm and Warsaw in 1862; and in England between 1865 and 1891.^[3] On 25 November 1978 the opera received its 100th performance at the Opéra-Comique, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling and with Jean-Philippe Lafont, Jocelyne Taillon and Jules Bastin among the cast.^[4]

In June 1923, Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Erik Satie to compose recitatives to replace the spoken dialogue. According to one assessment of the stylistic relationship between Satie's contribution and the recitatives Gounod wrote for other operas is that "the harmonic paths, smoothly consequential in Gounod's recitatives, are more nervous and sharp-cornered in those of Satie" who creates "musical situations that are unmistakably personal". The Satie recitatives premiered in Monte Carlo on 5 January 1924.^[5]

The opera has been rarely performed in recent years, although there have been radio broadcasts: from the BBC in the 1950s and French radio in the 1970s. Yale Opera, in a partnership with the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Yale French Department, performed the piece with the Satie recitatives in April 2004 in New Haven, Connecticut.^[6] Utopia Opera in New York City performed the work in French with English supertitles in March 2013 and February 2014.^[7] Still given from time to time in the French provinces, the Grand Théâtre de Genève mounted a production by Laurent Pelly in April 2016.^[8]

Roles

Synopsis

Place: Rural France

Time: the 17th century

Overture

Musical style and reputation

The light, non-sentimental style of the music in Le médecin malgré lui has attracted many musicians and critics, including Berlioz.^[9] "Gounod is at his best... – an elegant musician, with a charming lyrical gift, a genuine instinct for what may be called 'chamber' drama, and a discreet and well-balanced sense of the orchestra".^[12]

Alongside his distinctive feel throughout for French prosody, the sextet from act 2 has been noted for its use of song and melodrame where Sganarelle has to diagnose Lucinde's muteness; Gounod also manages pastiches of earlier styles in the march that closes act 2 and Léandre's serenade.^[13]

Other operas based on the same play

By: Désaugiers (1792), Haibel (1841), Ferdinand Poise (1887, never performed)^[14]

References

Notes

Sources

• Cooper, Martin (1961). French Music from the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Fauré. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Huebner, Steven (1992). "Médecin malgré lui, Le ('The Doctor Despite Himself')". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O005413. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
• Huebner, Steven (1990). The Operas of Charles Gounod. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kenney, Charles Lamb (1870s). Arthur Sullivan; J. Pittman (eds.). The Mock Doctor (English vocal score). London and New York: Boosey & Co.
• Lacombe, Hervé (2001). The Keys to French Opera in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by Edward Schneider. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520217195.
• Hitchcock, H. Wiley (1997). "Molière". In Stanley Sadie (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London, New York: Macmillan.

External links

• Le médecin malgré lui (Gounod): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Additional music: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project, Erik Satie for the Monte Carlo revival.