The Golden Treasury Of French Prose - Volume 2

 

The Golden Treasury Of French Prose

The Golden Treasury Of French Prose

Volume 2

Lucienne Le Marchand & Georges Riquier of The Theatre National Populaire

Montesquieu Voltarie

Rousseau

Diderot

Laclos

Chateaubriand

Stendhal

Michelet

Balzac

Directed by Arthur Luce Klein

Cover Design by Roy Kuhlman

Photograph of Notre-Dame Gargoyle, Courtesy French Government Tourist Office

Recorded at Technisonor, Paris

Spoken Arts SA 796

From the back cover: Read by Georges Riquier & Lucienne Le Marchand

Georges Riquier epitomizes the highest standards of acting in the French theatre. He started to act very young while he was involved in a serious study of literature. But both activities were interrupted by the war. He became a pilot in the French Air Force. Demobilized in Morocco in 1941 he at once organized a small theatrical company called "Le Petit Chariot" which like the traveling players of centuries ago set up their wagon stages wherever an audience could be found, and his company played Moliere in the cities, tiny villages, even in the fields. He rejoined the Armed Forces in 1942 and fought his way back to France via Algeria and Sardinia. He met Jacques Copeau just before his discharge in 1945 who had great influence on him. He then joined the company of Louis Jouvet, and over the years played principal parts in plays by Giraudoux, Moliere and Jules Romains, touring with Jouvet all over the world. When Jouvet died in 1951, Riquier spent a year playing with le Centre Dramatique de L'Quest, and in 1952 he was invited by Jean Vilar to participate in the famed Festival at Avignon to play one of the leading roles in Musset's "Lorenzaccio". Since then he has been one of the keystone's in Vilar's Theatre National Popular where he has interpreted dozens of roles in plays by Moliere, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Eliot and others. His range is remarkable, his gift for characterization, beyond compare. He has appeared in many films and is a professor of Dramatic Art at L'Ecole Charles Dullin. Always interested in developing young talent he is very active in "les Groupements de Jeunes." He is also the founder of "le Theatre du Jeune Public" and the author of such popular children's plays as "Dadais", "Le Roy Nu", "Youm et les Longues Moustaches", and "Le Petit Cheval Bossou".

Lucienne Le Marchand made her stage debut in 1931 at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre in "Le Mal de la Jeunesse" by Bruckner, directed by Raymond Rouleau, and since that time her name has been associated with the foremost actors, directors and playwrights of the Parisian theatre world. During the war she was in charge of theatre productions broadcast by Radio-France in Algiers. After her returning to Paris in 1945 she appeared in numerous plays and films, starring in dramas by Marcel Achard, Cromelinck and Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1951 she participated in the last festival at Avignon under the direction of Jean Vilar before he created the Theatre National Popular, in which she created the role of the "Electric": in the "Prince de Hombourg" which was later repeated in Paris, as well as the role of "Elvire" in Corneille' "Cid". She left the T.N.P. in 1953 in order to create the leading role in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" for the Theatre National Belge in Brussels, and participated in numerous festivals all over France and on tour through North Africa. Lucienne Le Marchand has been with the Theatre National Popular again since 1957 and is it leading actress. She is gifted with a voice that has been compared to that of Sarah Bernhardt's for its golden quality, and it has been used to great advantage in the classics of Racine, Corneille, Moliere and Marivaux. She joins Renaud in the Spoken Arts list of incomparable French actresses by her sensitive interpretation of some of the great names in French literature

Lettres Persanes: Rica a Usbek - Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)

Candide - Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Lettre de M. de Voltaire a Madame La Marquise du Deffand 4 juin 1764 - Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Emile on de l'Education - Sij étais Riche - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)

Les Confessions: Une Nuit a la Belle Etoile - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)

Paradoxe sur le Comédien - Diderot (1713 - 1784)

Extrais des Liaisons Dangereuses Lettre - La Marquise de Merteuil au Victime de Valmont - Laclos (1741 - 1803)

Rene: Reveries de Rene - Chateaubriand (1768 - 1848)

Genie du Christianisme: Les Ruines - Chateaubriand (1768 - 1884)

Le Rouge et le Noir - Stendhal (1783 - 1842)

Jeanne D'Arc - Michelet (1798 - 1874)

Le Pere Goriot - Honore De Balzac (1799 - 1850)