The incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne (usually translated as 'The Girl from Arles') was composed by Georges Bizet for the first performance of the play in 1872.
The music consisted of 27 numbers (some only a few bars) for voice, chorus and small orchestra. The numbers ranged from short solos to longer entr'actes. The music received poor reviews, and is not much performed nowadays in its original form. It has survived and flo...
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The incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne (usually translated as 'The Girl from Arles') was composed by Georges Bizet for the first performance of the play in 1872.
The music consisted of 27 numbers (some only a few bars) for voice, chorus and small orchestra. The numbers ranged from short solos to longer entr'actes. The music received poor reviews, and is not much performed nowadays in its original form. It has survived and flourished, however, in the form of two separate suites for orchestra.
Although Bizet composed several ‘folk-like’ themes for the music, he also incorporated three actual tunes from a collection published by Vidal of Aix in 1864. These are the Marcho dei Rei, the Danse dei Chivau-Frus and Er dou Guet. Bizet's score achieves powerful dramatic ends with the most economic of means.
(1) Overture – the march of the kings; l’Innocent’s theme; Frédéri’s theme.
ACT 1
TABLEAU 1: The farm at Le Castelet In the first mélodrame (No 2) Francet Mamaï, Frédéri...
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