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opera Lully's Le bourgeois gentilhomme Benjamin Lazar (stage director), Vincent Dumestre (conductor) — With Arnaud Marzorati, Claire Lefilliâtre, François-Nicolas Geslot

Benjamin Lazar (stage director), Vincent Dumestre (conductor) — With Arnaud Marzorati, Claire Lefilliâtre, François-Nicolas Geslot

Lully's Le bourgeois gentilhomme Benjamin Lazar (stage director), Vincent Dumestre (conductor) — With Arnaud Marzorati, Claire Lefilliâtre, François-Nicolas Geslot

About

In 1669, Louis XIV received Suleiman Aga, an emissary of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV, with the grandiose welcome befitting an ambassador. But all the dazzling ceremonies left Aga (who may have played a key role in introducing Parisian society to coffee) indifferent. The following year—whether inspired, offended, or playing on the popularity of all things Turkish—the Sun King commissioned a spectacle of “turqueries” combining theatre, dance and music. Unlike the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk centuries later, Le bourgeois gentilhomme is not a weighty philosophical statement, but a comédie-ballet crafted by a legendary team—play by Molière, music by Lully—to entertain the court and the king.

The comedy draws a satirical parallel between the emerging bourgeoisie (epitomized by a snobby, naive nouveau riche by the name of Monsieur Jourdain—played by Molière himself in 1670!) and the Turkish visitor Suleiman, ignorant of the honorable protocols that left him so cold. The ambitious Jourdain despises his daughter's suitor Cléonte, a fellow bourgeois—played by Lully in 1670!—so, preying upon Jourdain’s ambitious, sycophantic nature, he successfully passes himself off as the son of a Turkish sultan to win his favor.

This delightful time capsule restages the work as it was seen and heard the day of its premiere: scored with instruments from Lully’s era, pronounced with 17th-century inflection, and lit only by (over five hundred!) candles. The amusing, lively production feels like a spontaneous and intelligent dialogue, in verse and in prose, between the forms of art it celebrates and puts on display.

Cast

  • Benjamin Lazar | Stage director
  • Cécile Roussat | Stage director (Intermèdes and ballets)
  • Adeline Caron | Set designer
  • Alain Blanchot | Costume designer
  • Christophe Naillet | Lighting designer
  • Mathilde Benmoussa | Make-up artist
  • Actors:
  • Olivier Martin Salvan | Monsieur Jourdain
  • Nicolas Vial | Madame Jourdain
  • Louise Moaty | Lucile
  • Benjamin Lazar | Le maître de philosophie
  • Dancers:
  • Caroline Ducrest | Un espagnol/Une poitevine/Un laquais
  • Julien Lubeck | Arlequin/Le donneur de livre/Un garçon tailleur
  • Cécile Roussat | Un garçon tailleur/Une espagnole/La siamoise de la vieille bourgeoise babillarde
  • Flora Sans | Un Trivelin/Un garçon tailleur/Un laquais
  • Arnaud Marzorati | Le mufti/Le vieux bourgeois babillard/L’élève
  • Claire Lefilliâtre | La musicienne/La femme du bel-air/L’italienne
  • François-Nicolas Geslot | Le 1er musicien/La vieille bourgeoise babillarde/Un espagnol/Un poitevin
  • Musica Florea
  • Marek Štryncl | Artistic director
  • Le Poème Harmonique
  • Vincent Dumestre | Conductor

Program

  • Jean-Baptiste Lully, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme
    • Ouverture
    • L’élève du maitre de musique
    • I: Scène 1
    • I: Scène 2
    • I: Je languis nuit et jour (Air pour la sérénade de la musicienne chantante)
    • I: Scène 2 - Suite
    • I: Chanson de monsieur Jourdain
    • I: Scène 2 - Suite
    • I: Dialogue en musique ritournelle/Musicienne
    • I: Ritournelle et 1er musicien
    • I: Ritournelle et 2nd musicien
    • I: Ritournelle et musicienne et 2 musiciens
    • I: Scène 2 - Fin
    • I: 1er Intèrmede
    • II: Scène 1
    • II: La, la, la (Menuet pour faire danser Monsieur Jourdain)
    • II: Scène 5
    • II: 1er Air des garçons tailleurs
    • II: Scène 5 - Fin
    • II: 2nd Intermède - 2nd Air des garçons tailleurs
    • III: 3e Intermède les cuisiniers
    • III: Scène 1
    • III: Chansons à boire
    • III: Scène 1 - Fin
    • Marche pour la cérémonie des turcs
    • Première entrée - Le donneur de livres (Ballet des nations)
    • Seconde entrée - Les trois importuns
    • Troisième entrée - Les espagnols
    • Quatrième entrée - Ritournelle
    • Entrée des Scaramouches, Trivelins et Arlequin
    • Le musicien italien
    • 1er Menuet
    • Sixième Entrée - Les trois nations

Details

  • Directed by:
    • Martin Fraudreau
  • Venue: Le Trianon (Paris, France)
  • Production date: 2005
  • Duration: 3 h 30 min
  • Production: © ARTE France - AMIRAL LDA - ALPHA PRODUCTIONS
  • Available version(s): FR
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