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Work

Le Molière imaginaire, op. 99 : for eight voices

by Timothy Knapman and Andrew Schultz (2015)

Score Sample

View a sample of the score of this work

Audio Sample

Performance by I Fagiolini (vocal ensemble) from the CD Le Moliére Imaginaire

Le Moliére Imaginaire

Non-Commercial

This item is not commercially available from the Australian Music Centre. We regret that we cannot offer it for sale.

Work Overview

Text by Timothy Knapman, after the final scene of Molière's Le Malade Imaginaire.

Molière hated doctors and it seems the feeling was mutual. Molière's play Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid, 1673) was his last. He was seriously ill when writing it and died a few hours after a performance in which he had played the major role of Argan, the wealthy hypochondriac. Throughout the play, Molière heaps scathing wit on the money-raking quackery of some of his medical contemporaries. Some 25 years later, an English doctor visiting Paris considered Molière to have had 'as much malice as wit.'

The last scene of the play is in fact a musical interlude - one of three in the play. It consists of a faux medical graduation ceremony in which a budding doctor is put through his paces by the medical fraternity and tested on his capacity to provide the right solutions to various hypothetical scenarios. In keeping with the spirit of farce the ceremony is enacted in bizarre pig-Latin - not quite Latin, French or Italian, but a mixture of all three signifying the pomposity of the occasion. The medical ceremonies of the time were apparently quite elaborate with music, costumes, processions and speeches in Latin.

Whilst living in Paris at the Cité des Arts in 2014, I became interested in the fact that neither of the two main English translations of the play attempted an English version of this last scene; both leave the final scene in its original form. Perhaps this was because of the devilish dexterity of the language or the idea that the Latin would be known and understood. So, after much encouragement and support from I Fagiolini's erudite artistic director, Robert Hollingworth, and the aid of some Latinisti and Molière enthusiasts, a new and contemporary version of the scene has been created for unaccompanied voices by the English writer, Tim Knapman, and myself.

Work Details

Year: 2015

Instrumentation: 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, baritone, bass.

Duration: 13 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Written for: I Fagiolini (vocal ensemble)

Commission note: Commissioned by Geoff Stearn for performance by Musica Viva Australia.. Composed to be part of Musica Viva Australia’s 2015 International Concert Season.

First performance: by I Fagiolini (vocal ensemble) — Jul 15. Musica Viva Australia’s 2015 International Concert Season

Winner of Vocal/Choral Work of the Year, Art Music Awards, 2016

Awards & Prizes

Year Award Placing Awarded for/to
2016 Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Vocal/Choral Winner Andrew Schultz

Analysis

Resonate article: 2016 Art Music Awards finalists - comments by judging panels by Australian Music Centre

Performances of this work

Jul 15: Musica Viva Australia’s 2015 International Concert Season. Featuring I Fagiolini (vocal ensemble).

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