1929–1938 · His Master's Voice, Lumen, Selmer

The Comédie-Française on Record

The house of Molière, sociétaire by sociétaire

The Comédie-Française is the one theatre company in the world old enough to have a continuous performance tradition running back to its founding playwright, and in the late 1920s it began putting that tradition on disc — sociétaires of the house, in the parts they played at the Salle Richelieu, recorded four minutes at a time. It is a strange, valuable archive: not a production, but a set of core samples through one. Molière's own company, three centuries later, is audible here in the diction and the timing.

11 broadcasts · 6 seasons held · Salle Richelieu, Paris