Audiobooks by "Molière", page 2

A very early Moliere. From the Translator: "In this piece the plot is carried on ... by a servant, Mascarille, who is the first original personage Molière has created; he is not a mere imitation of the valets of the Italian or classical comedy; he has not the coarseness and base ...

"The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle having been ratified ... and peace being assured ... Louis XIV resolved to give a festival in his favorite gardens of Versailles. Moliere's comedy, George Dandin, formed the chief entertainment." The plot: A wife comes home rather late, finds the...

The setup here is that Moliere and his troupe have been sent for by the King to come perform at Versailles. But instead of the piece they had prepared, the King has just asked for an entirely new piece - to be ready later that same day! So all the action of the play takes place b...

"The King [Louis XIV], who will have nothing but what is magnificent in all he undertakes, wished to give his court an entertainment which should comprise all that the stage can furnish. To facilitate the execution of so vast an idea, and to link together so many different things...

In the month of May 1664, Louis XIV entertained the Queen-mother, Anne of Austria, and his own wife , Maria Theresa, with a brilliant and sumptuous fete at Versailles.... The second day was distinguished by the representation of The Pricess of Elis [by Moliere].... The Princess o...

Don Juan "contains, perhaps, more severe attacks upon hypocrisy than does even Tartuffe. It depicts the hero as a man who, rich, noble, powerful, and bold, respects neither heaven nor earth, and knows no bounds to the gratification of his desires or his passions. He has excellent...

Four most fashionable doctors are called in by Sganarelle to cure his daughter, but instead they argue about everything and Sganarelle is driven to the streets where he finds a quack and his daughter's disguised lover. Moliere: "This is only a slight impromptu, a simple pencil s...

Alceste, the misanthrope, hates everyone including himself. But unlike in many pure farces with their cliche stock characters, the characters here are much more well rounded, and who knows - Alceste might actually grow and change throughout the play. "Those who admired noble tho...

Moliere: "Never was any Dramatic performance so hurried as this; and it is a thing, I believe, quite new, to have a comedy planned, finished, got up, and played in a fortnight. I do not say this to boast of an impromptu, or to pretend to any reputation on that account: but only t...

The Imaginary Invalid (French: Le Malade imaginaire) is a three-act comédie-ballet by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed in 1673 and was the last work he wrote. In an ironic twist of fate, Molière collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February ...

This is a very different Moliere, not the usual satire of everyday life. It is instead a classical tale based on the ancient story of Psyche and Cupid, and was performed for Louis XIV with ballet interludes to music by Jean-Baptiste Lully (which we do not include here) in 1671. -...

The Miser is a comedy of manners about a rich moneylender named Harpagon. His feisty children long to escape from his penny-pinching household and marry their respective lovers. Although the 17th-century French upper classes presumably objected to the play's message, it is less s...