• 2(pic).2.2(bcl).2+cbn/2.1[in C].1.0/timp(perc).perc/hp/str
  • 1111/1110/perc/hp/str (min 1.1.1.1.1)
  • Optional chorus
  • Baritone, Bass, Mezzo soprano, high Baritone, Soprano, Tenor, Soprano, Mezzo soprano, silent role
  • 2 hr 10 min
  • Libretto by the composer after Molière. German translation by Thomas Martin.
  • Chinese, English, German, Russian
    • 15th June 2025, The Hillside Club, Berkeley, CA, United States of America
    • 22nd June 2025, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
    View all

Programme Note

Cast List
   TARTUFFE, a hypocrite: Baritone
   ORGON, a wealthy Parisian: Bass
   ELMIRE, Orgon's second wife: Mezzo-soprano
   MARIANE, Orgon's daughter: Soprano
   DORINE, Mariane's maid: Soprano
   DAMIS, Orgon's son: High Baritone
   VALÈRE, Mariane's fiancé: Tenor
   MME. PERNELLE, Orgon's mother: Mezzo-soprano
   FLIPOTE, Mme. Pernelle's maid: Silent

Synopsis
Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite, insinuates his way into Orgon's house and tries to marry his daughter. Orgon's wife, Elmire, sees through Tartuffe and plots to trick him into seducing her in order to open Orgon's eyes. Tartuffe, however, takes control of the house and wants to get the owner arrested, members of the family disguise themselves as officials of the crown and drive Tartuffe away.

With over 400 performances in more than 100 productions since its 1980 San Francisco Opera premiere, Tartuffe has become one of the most popular operas ever written by an American.

In its "20th-century Classics" series, the Vienna Kammeroper's production of Tartuffe was a triumph in its Austrian premiere May 2, 2002. From September to January the opera played in three cities in Germany to ovations and excellent reviews, as it did in a three-year repertory run at the Mussorgsky National Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. It has been translated into German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and most recently into Czech for the National Theater in Prague.

Media

'No More, Pale Moon' - Karen Lupton & Jacqueline Putnam, accompanied by Allen Baston
'Fair Robin I Love' - Lucie St-Martin, accompanied by Carol-Anne Fraser

Scores

operas by Kirke Mechem
full orchestration, Act I
full orchestration, Act II
full orchestration, Act III
reduced orchestration, Act I
reduced orchestration, Act II
reduced orchestration, Act III

Reviews

…a sparkling, lapidary and accessible work

Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times
1st November 1990
Fabulous fun...bursting with movement and comedy. In composer Kirke Mechem, Molière has found his musical alter ego.
Die Furche (Vienna)
Wiener Kammeroper presented the Austrian premiere of a successful American work, Tartuffe, by Kirke Mechem. In the presence of the composer, the audience enjoyed two hours of sharp, lively opera buffa. The idea is as simple as it is successful: its framework is Molière's five-act penetrating satire...Mechem wrote a tight English libretto - modern, easily understood and wittily theatrical - and set it to music that is skillful and deftly humorous. The characterizations are masterful. Musical quotations, artfully placed, guarantee laughter at the right moments.
Peter Haiderer, Die Presse (Vienna)
The Austrian premiere of Kirke Mechem's highly successful three-act comic opera Tartuffe at the Wiener Kammeroper was an unexpected delight. Mechem, one of America's most prolific composers, has a genuine flair for the theater and an acute understanding of comedy...[Moliere's] superbly structured play serves as the basis for the opera, yet Mechem has provided a deft, glimmering, witty score. The opera is a delight; its music [of] sheer inventiveness, its orchestration highly detailed, and genuinely free of heavy- handedness throughout. Mechem's style is melodious, lyrical, and rhythmically exact...[His] is a distinctive voice and he has a particular gift for vocal writing. Here, he deliberately tailored both form and language to mirror 18th-century opera buffa in an ironic sense, while reflecting it entirely through late 20th-century declamatory interplay...
Brendan Carroll, Opera Now
...a true master stroke. Exquisite, witty, tempestuous, effervescent-no opera lover should miss it.
Kleine Zeitung (Graz)
Tears of laughter…This correspondent has rarely heard such a witty
contemporary opera, with such finely honed irony…It is uproariously
funny…with downright fantastic rhymes and play of words.
Salzburger Nachrichten
...a brilliant jewel, a delicious hit, right on the mark....The score is inspired, handsomely suited to the purpose and wildly effective at every turn....could be sold out for weeks or months...a masterful accomplishment.
San Francisco Chronicle
How have I missed knowing about the opera Tartuffe by Kirke Mechem? It was premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1980 and by late 2002 had already had some 260 performances in some 70 productions, worldwide. The composer made his own libretto, in English, based on the great Molière play, and it has been translated into Chinese, Czech, German, Japanese, and Russian. It has gathered effusive reviews everywhere it has been performed, and a May 4 performance by the NCSA's A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute fully confirmed the reasons for the opera's acclaim. This is very much a virtuoso ensemble opera...It was a fast paced, "white hot" evening of complete theater....Run - don't walk! - to catch Mechem's delightful Tartuffe.
William Thomas Walker, Classical Voice of North Carolina
a delight, a high spirited farce, full of sparkling word-plays and internal rhymes. . . The invention and genial good nature of this score are impressive, indeed. . . recalls Falstaff.
New York Times
a delight; a deft, glimmering, witty score of sheer
inventiveness, its orchestration highly detailed and free of heavy-handedness. A
distinctive voice: a genuine flair for theater and an acute understanding of comedy. . . .
a lengthy ovation from the packed house.
Opera Now
Immediately accessible and shamelessly appealing.…From Mozart,
Mechem has divined the secrets of buoyant, intricate ensemble
writing....Strauss has taught him how to capture the upper soprano range in
all its soaring glory....conjures up a wide and glittering spectrum of colors and
textures.
Los Angeles Times
An ebullient and melodic masterpiece … startlingly original concepts and
sounds and infectious rhythms. He also takes the time, though, to pause for a
breath with elegant arias that define character.
Troy Record (New York)