Erik Satie by Potter Caroline Dr;

Author:Potter, Caroline, Dr;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Published: 2013-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Case Study: Le Médecin malgré lui (from Act III, Scene 7)

On 20 September, Satie wrote to Diaghilev saying ‘I have a lot to discuss with you’ and fixed a meeting for 22 September:16 as he had already completed the first two acts of the opera, he was probably going to talk to Diaghilev about the third – and last – act. On 28 September, a few days after this meeting, Satie indicated in a more precise way the passage of the opera causing most of his troubles:

I need to talk to you about Scene vii (page 42 of the libretto & page 174 of the score). What will we do with the Andantino? And how will we deal with the flute and bassoon ‘things’? I would like to see you about this matter. Yes. Couldn’t the ‘speech over music’ go over the Andantino? Think about it, I beg you. I will be at the Savoy on Monday morning [1 October] at 11 o’clock (eleven). This Scene vii is bothering me a little. You will be able to enlighten me on this topic. Yes.17

The page of the score to which Satie is referring is reproduced in Fig. 8.1. This page is particularly dense in dramatic indications: the flute solo and the three interventions of the bassoon (these to be synchronized with a quick exchange between Sganarelle and Géronte) are mentioned in Satie’s letter as ‘les “trucs” de flûte & de basson’, but from now on our attention will be focused on the Andantino, orchestrated by Gounod for strings only (see the bracketed abbreviation ‘Quat[uor]’). This short piece, 16 bars long, is placed after Sganarelle’s cue (Fig. 8.1), which is followed in the libretto by Lucinde’s line ‘Non, je ne suis point du tout capable de changer de sentiment’. Lucinde’s sentence, which is not found in Gounod’s score, was most probably spoken – not sung – as a melodrama passage over the Andantino.

Resorting to melodrama had an important dramatic function, linked to the plot twists – which I will summarise briefly. Sganarelle, a simple woodcutter, is mistaken for a doctor and is called upon to cure Lucinde (Géronte’s daughter) of her mutism. But Lucinde, in love with Léandre, is actually feigning dumbness in order to avoid an undesired arranged marriage to a man she does not love. In this scene of Act III, Sganarelle flings himself into a delirious parascientific disquisition with the sole aim of distracting Géronte from Léandre’s manoeuvres. Meanwhile, Léandre (pretending to be an apothecary assisting the renowned physician) approaches Lucinde. Most unexpectedly, the girl verbally voices her incapacity to change her mind – implicitly referring to her sentimental preferences. Géronte, visibly surprised of his daughter’s sudden recovery, warmly thanks Sganarelle for his admirable job.

The Andantino is thus associated with a revelation of feelings. This piece, imbued with a gentle expressiveness that is quite typical of Gounod’s musical style, is actually an almost literal quotation of Léandre’s sérénade ‘Est-on sage dans le bel âge ?’ from Act II, expressing

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