when he returned to france he got a job as musician to the duchess of guise who was a rich lady who employed several musicians. he worked for her for many years, both as a singer (he had a high tenor voice known in french as an “haute-contre”), and as a composer. when the great playwright molière stopped working with lully he asked charpentier to work with him. he wrote music for several plays by molière including "le malade imaginaire". after molière's died in 1673, charpentier continued to write for other playwrights such as thomas corneille and jean donneau de visé. he often used more musicians than he was allowed (only lully, the king’s composer, was allowed to use lots of musicians for his performances). in the end charpentier stopped writing music for plays.