After its much-acclaimed premiere at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1964 and a transfer to Hamburg, Georges Auric’s music to Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac disappeared into the archives. Now this extremely effective music is crying out to be rediscovered – either in concert performance or with the musical comedy.
In Monsieur de Pourceaugnac Molière takes up several of his favourite themes at the same time: the disgrace of upstarts, the desire for disguise and deception, and his well-known love-hate relationship with medicine. This seldom-performed comedy with song and dance pulls out all the stops of sparkling buffoonery:
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, a shameless parvenu from the provinces, comes to Paris. He wants to marry Julie, a good match. She is the daughter of the rich citizen Oronte, who allows himself to be taken in by the fraud. However, Julie loves Eraste. Together with the cunning Neapolitan Sbrigani and the scheming Nerine, the young couple hatch a plan in order to play tricks on the odious coarse one, for they want to get rid of him, with the aim above all of winning round the autocratic father Oronte. Yet it is not only Pourceaugnac’s ridiculousness which is exposed in all the hurly-burly, but also that of the apothecary, the doctor and other civic institutions. The grotesque game with larger than life characters and confusion unravels: the provincial fellow has enough and makes a bolt for it, the pair of lovers are finally victorious and on top of that, can look forward to a considerable dowry from Oronte …
When the Schwetzingen Festival engaged the renowned director Oscar Fritz Schuh for its production of this work in 1964, Georges Auric was commissioned to compose the incidental music. Which theatre can afford to engage an orchestra and singers in the production of a play nowadays? In addition, leading author and translator of the day Hans Weigel contributed an extremely subtle German adaptation of the work, most effective on the stage. The four performances in Schwetzingen, with well-known star actors including Heinz Reincke, Hermann Schomberg, Gerhard Bünte and Erni Mangold, were acclaimed by the critics. Following this, the production transferred to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg – and one day the piece appeared on the programme for the last time. The score, vocal score and performance material of Auric’s incidental music have gathered dust on the shelves for decades, not least because of changing tastes in performance practice in the theatre. The vast repertoire of incidental music contains many treasures!
Georges Auric (1899–1983) is regarded as one of the leading French composers. A friend of Erik Satie and member of the legendary group “Les Six”, Auric achieved recognition with both frequently-performed works in almost every genre and as a writer on music and columnist in arts pages. He also wrote the music for various cult films including Lohn der Angst, Rififi, Lieben Sie Brahms? and Bonjour Tristesse. The refined instrumentation and dramatic presence well-known from his film music is also characteristic of this incidental music, a masterly composition with a light touch. It ideally matches this charming comedy, for, just like the play, the succinct, trenchantly formulated music is defined by the character of the Petit Rien, the divertimento. After the premiere on 28 May 1964 the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised Auric’s music particularly for its “blend of baroque reminiscences and modern, witty instrumentation.”
With a chamber orchestra and four soloists, who can also sing the short choral passages, the scoring remains within modest dimensions. Auric dresses the bold amorality of this brilliant Molière farce in a highly charming guise, which can be equally effective in concert performance with narrator, offering surprising insights into the unfolding events beneath the surface.
A discovery!
Michael Töpel
from [t]akte 2/2011