Following the success of Mario and the Magician, Leonce and Lena and Mrs Karnyó, this is the fourth work by János Vajda to be staged at the Opera, this one based on both Molière’s Le malade imaginaire and the stage play that Mikhail Bulgakov wrote about the French comedian, The Cabal of Hypocrites. Vajda’s new opera is simultaneously hilariously witty and thought-provoking: “This is my first opera to be based around an idea of my own. My original thinking was to compose music for Bulgakov’s piece, which is about Molière’s life, with Le malade imaginaire unfolding in the background. Then I started to feel that the situation instead should be reversed, with Molière’s comedy taking the foreground and the French playwright’s life and struggles receding into the background. What was the reason for this mirror image? I felt that I had discovered the appropriate music for Molière’s work, meaning that his life story had to be the subordinate thread throughout the entire work.”
Cast
Conductor: János Kovács
Molière / Argan: András Hábetler
Béline: Bernadett Wiedemann
Toinette Mária Farkasréti
Teofil: Ninh Duc Hoang Long
Loius XIV: Tibor Szappanos
Authors
Libretto based on the comedies The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere and The Cabal of Hypocrites by Mikhail Bulgakov by: Szabolcs Várady
Set designer: Renátó Cseh
Costume designer: Anni Füzér
Dramaturg: Diána Eszter Mátrai
English surtitles: Arthur Roger Crane
