George Dandin ou le Mari confondu

George Dandin ou le mari confondu (George Dandin or The Thwarted Husband[1]) is a French Comédie-ballet in three acts by Molière, with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, choreography by Pierre Beauchamp, and architecture/staging by Carlo Vigarani and Henri de Gissey.[2] It premiered at the Palace of Versailles, seen by Louis XIV and guests, numbering possibly to 3000 total people,[3] on 18 July 1668, during the Le Grand divertissement royal (Grand Royal Entertainment), produced by court financier Jean-Baptiste Colbert, celebrating the peace from the Treaty of Aachen.[4] Without the ballet and music, the comedy appeared to the Paris public at the theatre of the Palais-Royal beginning on 9 November 1668.

Court historian André Félibien summarized the play in the official brochure (1668) this way: "The subject is that a wealthy peasant, who has married the daughter of a country gentleman, receives nothing but contempt from his wife as well as his handsome father- and mother-in-law, who only accepted him as their son-in-law because of his possessions and wealth". [5]

Contemporary scholar Roland Racevskis summarized it this way: "The action centers on the woes of [George Dandin], a wealthy peasant who has entered into a misalliance by marrying Angélique, the daughter of a pair of caricatural provincial nobles, Monsieur and Madame de Sotenville [the latter played in female cross-dress] ... Dandin must repeatedly endure the humiliation of recognizing the social superiority of the Sotenvilles and of apologizing to the wife who is cuckolding him all the while."[6]

Concerning Dandin's pretensions as a nouveau-riche gentleman, specifically his costume (as played by the playwright, Molière), described in the company's inventory by M.E. Soulie: "Breeches and cloak of light brown taffeta, with collar of the same; the whole adorned with lace and silver buttons, a belt of the same; a little doublet of crimson silk; another doublet of brocade of different colors and silver lace, to wear over it; and a large ruff and shoes."[7] About it, Roger Chartier wrote, "Such a costume, which has nothing peasant about it, could immediately be recognized as an outrageous, forced, old-fashioned imitation of the aristocratic outfit." (Chartier 1994, p. 302) [8]

Characters and Original Cast
  • Georges Dandin (George Dandin), husband of Angelica: Molière
  • Angelica (Angélique), Georges Dandin's wife: Mlle Armande Béjart Molière
  • Sir Sotenville (Monsieur de Sotenville), Angelica's father: Du Croisy
  • Mrs Sotenville (Madame de Sotenville), Sir Sotenville's wife: Louis Béjart, later André Hubert (both cross-dress males)[9]
  • Clitandre (Clitandre), charming gallant, in love with Angelica: La Grange
  • Claudine, Angelica's servant: Mlle de Brie
  • Lubin, Clitander's servant: La Thorillière
  • Colin, Dandin's servant

References

Notes

  1. As translated by James F. Gaines 2002.
  2. Barbara Coeyman, "Social Dance in the 1668 Feste de Versailles: Architecture and Performance Context", Early Music (May 1998), 281.
  3. Gerry McCarthy, The Theatres of Moliere (Routledge, 2002), 125.
  4. Barbara Coeyman, "Social Dance in the 1668 Feste de Versailles: Architecture and Performance Context", Early Music (May 1998), 267.
  5. André Félibien, Relation de la fête de Versailles du dix-huitième juillet 1668 (Paris, Pierre Le Petit, 1668).
  6. James F. Gaines, ed., The Molière Encyclopedia (NY: Greenwood, 2002), 196. ISBN 0313312559
  7. Quoted in Madeleine Jurgens and Elizabeth Maxfield-Miller, Cent ans de recherches sur Molière, sur sa famille et sur les comédiens de sa troupe (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1963), 567.
  8. Roger Chartier, "George Dandin, ou le social en représentation", Annales: Histoire, sciences sociales, 49/2 (1994), 277-309 (302).
  9. Julia Prest, Theatre under Louis XIV: Cross-Casting and the Performance of Gender in Drama, Ballet, and Opera (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 31-32. ISBN 978-1-4039-7518-8
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