The forced marriage

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The forced marriage (original French title Le mariage forcé ) is a comedy in prose by the French poet Molière . The one-act play was premiered as a ballet comedy with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully on January 29, 1664 in the apartments of Queen Mother Anna in the Louvre Palace.

An improvised pastime before the start of the carnival, from a contemporary point of view the piece was a "petit ballet" with a comedy in which there were again ballet and music pieces - the term ballet comedy was not yet coined. Molière and his theater troupe had five days to write and practice, which was only possible with recourse to specified types. The band of lyrics ( livret ) published by Ballard in 1664 said of the cast:

"Egyptiens: le Roy , le marquis de Villeroy "

Louis XIV danced in a gypsy costume at the premiere. In addition, other members of the high aristocracy danced. The Marquise Du Parc took on the role of Dorimène .

The public premiere took place on February 15 of the same year at the Palais Royal in Paris .

After a break between Molière and Lully in 1672, the piece was performed in a new version in July 1672 with musical interludes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier .

Hugo von Hofmannsthal created a German-language adaptation of an unwilling marriage . Max Reinhardt first performed it on September 21, 1910.

action

The 52-year-old, well-off Sganarelle wants to marry the beautiful young Dorimène. His friend Geronimo advises against this marriage. Two learned philosophers, one of whom is a representative of Aristotelianism , the other a follower of Pyrrhonism , and two gypsy women making music increase the candidate's uncertainty. After Dorimène has announced to him that she does not intend to keep her marital fidelity so exactly, and her lover Lycaste also takes the stage, Sganarelle wants to withdraw his promise to marry his father-in-law. But he is prevented by Dorimène's belligerent brother, who challenges the unfortunate to a duel. For better or worse, Sganarelle must finally consent to the " forced marriage ".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philippe Beaussant: Lully ou Le musicien du Soleil , Gallimard, [Paris] 1992, p. 289.
  2. ↑ Beaussant 1992: p. 292.
  3. ^ Johannes Hösle: Molière. His life, his work, his time , Piper Verlag, Munich 1987, p. 141.

Web links

Wikisource: The Forced Marriage (multiple editions)  - Sources and full texts (French)