Le Médecin malgré lui
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[edit] Opera Version
Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in spite of himself) is an opera in three acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Moliére's play of the same name.
It premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris on January 15, 1858.
| Premiere, January 15, 1858 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sganarelle, a woodcutter | baritone | |
| Léandre, Lucinde's lover | tenor | |
| Martine, Sganarelle's wife | mezzo-soprano | |
| Jacqueline, Lucas' wife | mezzo-soprano | |
| Lucinde, Géronte's daughter | soprano | |
| Géronte, a wealthy bourgeois | bass | |
| Valère, Géronte's valet | baritone | |
| Lucas, Géronte's servant | tenor |
[edit] Molière's Version
Molière originally wrote this as a comedy. Sganarelle is mistaken for a reputable doctor, even though, as a alcoholic woodcutter, he has no idea what a doctor should know.
[edit] Characters
See above (different actors and nearly no singing in the play).
[edit] Why did Molière write this?
A widely-accepted theory as to why Molière wrote this play is that he wanted to make fun of the practices of doctors at the time, such as leeching and the four humors. Since Sganarelle is a complete idiot, he even manages to mix up which side the heart and the liver are on (the heart is on the left, the liver is on the right).
It is also belived that he was forced to write this after his previous play, Le Misanthrope, turned out to be a commercial flop, despite the fact that The Misanthrope is one of his best known works.
[edit] Synopsis
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