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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.
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