Molière’s comedies were originally performed with elaborate music, rarely heard today. Lully contributed a double-choir dialogue between followers of Amour and Bacchus to George Dandin, and the hilarious Turkish ceremony from Le bourgeois gentilhomme, conducted by the Mufti and his dervishes in a largely nonsense language. We start with Charpentier’s superb operatic prologue for Le malade imaginaire, and end with his witty setting of the famous doctors’ ceremony, which invests the hypochondriac Argan with fake qualifications.

With a pre-concert talk ‘Molière: Music into Drama; Italy into France?‘ by Professor Richard Andrews, University of Leeds, at 4.45pm in the United Reformed Church, Hadleigh (free to concert ticket holders)

Tickets: £20 (reserved) and £15 (unreserved)
Half-price tickets are available to full-time students and to those under 30.