Salzburg Festival: Jette Steckel Stages Molière's "Le Misanthrope" with Hip-Hop and Alexandrine Verse

Ensemble and Cast

The concept of the production deliberately intends to keep the strict meter of the alexandrine, which Molière used in the original, audibly present while simultaneously breaking it through rhythmic break passages and spoken rap. In this way, the director says, a distinctive sonic space is created that translates the force of Molière's social satire into the present without modernizing or smoothing over the text.

The background of the casting also reflects the continuity of Salzburg's dramaturgy. As the review material notes, the casting of the position is largely attributed to the work of the current director Karin Bergmann as a successful drama advisor to the later dismissed Markus Hinterhäuser. Bergmann has been responsible for the festival's programmatic direction for several years and had previously shaped the drama program herself as a dramaturg.

Verse and Rhythm: Molière's Language in Hip-Hop Garb

Formally, the production remains faithful to Molière's verse principle. The alexandrine lines are not dissolved into modern prose but are deliberately displayed as an art form. Through the confrontation with hip-hop rhythms, a double layer emerges: the audience hears both the historical verse structure and a contemporary manner of speaking that has emerged from popular music.

The stage design, costumes, and choreography are conceived in such a way that the figures oscillate between courtly rigidity and urban movement. Alceste, the uncompromising fanatic for truth, appears with a clarity that is broken by the rhythmic interjections of the other figures. The ensemble around Matthias Jakisic plays out this tension with precise handling of the language and physical presence.

Programmatic Context: Bergmann's Festival Line

The premiere is part of the festival's drama program and joins a series of works through which the house, since Bergmann's tenure as director, has deliberately invited younger directorial signatures. The combination of canonical material and a clearly recognizable signature by Steckel is considered in advance to be one of the profiling focal points of the current season.

Reviews are expected after the premiere. Already in advance, theater observers are discussing whether the combination of alexandrine verse and hip-hop can succeed in Salzburg. The festival itself points to the long tradition of reading Molière anew time and again, and sees in the current production a consistent continuation of this line.

Steckel herself had emphasized in interviews that she does not want to update Molière's language, but rather to make it visible. The verse form should function not as an obstacle but as the rhythmic skeleton of the performance. The interjections from hip-hop serve to translate the affects of the figures into a modern body language without betraying the text.

Reception and Outlook

With this production, Salzburg is additionally sending a signal to a younger audience that the festival has so far reached less frequently. The combination of classical verse form and popular musical language is part of a strategy to bind new audience groups to the house without abandoning the core repertoire. Reactions to the sold-out first run of performances are considered cautiously positive.

The festival will continue its series of engagement with Molière in the coming weeks. Alongside "Le Misanthrope," further program items have been announced that will continue the theme of politeness, truthfulness, and social critique in various formats. With this, Salzburg remains true to its ambition to renegotiate canonical material time and again.