The Imaginary Sick or by his name in French The bad imagination, is the last comedy written by the Frenchman Molière. If you want to know more details, he continues reading.
The Imaginary Sick
It is a three-act comedy-ballet, eight, nine and fifteen scenes respectively, it premiered on February 10, 1673 and who was in charge of the premiere was tclothes by Molière. The place of premiere was the Royal Palace Theater (Paris, France). It is written in verse and inspired by the commedia dell'arte. The composer of the music is Marc-Antoine Charpenter and the ballet by Pierre Beauchamp.
Characters
The Imaginary Sick has twelve characters, which are:
- Argan, a hypochondriac (Person who worries excessively about suffering from serious illnesses)
- Bélisa: Argan's second wife.
- Angelica: The daughter of Argán, in love with Cleonte.
- Louison: Angelica's sister, Argan's youngest daughter.
- Béraldo: Brother of Argan.
- Cleonte: Angelica's lover (Lover).
- Mr. Diafoirus, a doctor.
- Thomas Diafoirus, the doctor's son, engaged to Angelica.
- Mr. Purgon, doctor of Argan.
- Mr. Fleurant, apothecary (in charge of the pharmacy).
- Mr. de Bonnefoi, notary.
- Antoinette, Argan's servant.
The music of The Imaginary Sick
Initially, the play was conceived with musical intermissions at the end of each act, together with the establishment of Argán as a doctor. Also, Angélica and Cleonte sing a short piece at the beginning of the second act. This is why Molière turned to Charpentier to be the composer.
The score was believed lost, but was found at the Comédie-Française by William Christie, who performed it on March 16, 1990 with Les Arts Florissants, in a performance at the Châtelet Theater. Until then, other composers had tried to transcribe the work, for example Jacques Offenbach in 1851.
The work in audio
LA Theater Works recorded and released a production in 1998, adapted by Beth Miles (who also directed the production), based on John Wood's translation. It was performed by The Actors Gang, and so far it is the only recording of the play in English.
The legend behind the work
It is a common superstition among actors not to wear yellow on stage because it is a bad omen, they consider that it can bring them bad luck or failure, it comes from the French playwright and actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673).
In February 1673, when Moliere premiered The Ill Imaginary, a work that focused on doctors by way of satire and humor, a few days later the same author felt unwell and died a few hours later at home. On the day of the play's performance, Moliere wore yellow clothes. This fact marked the use of the color yellow on stage.
If you have been interested in this article, do not hesitate to review our related article about a Spanish comedy by the Literary Lope de Vega: the dog in the gardener
El Enfermo Imaginario, complete work, performed by the Mester theater group, you can see it in the following video below: