BIZET
(Georges[18] Bizet: born in Paris, October 25, 1838; died in Bougival, France, June 3, 1875)
SUITE FROM "L'ARLÉSIENNE," No. 1[19]
- PRELUDE
- MINUETTO
- ADAGIETTO
- CARILLON
Bizet was commissioned to write incidental music for the performance at the Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, of Alphonse Daudet's three-act play "L'Arlésienne." The play and Bizet's music were given at the Vaudeville on October 1, 1872, and withdrawn after fifteen performances. Bizet's music comprised twenty-seven numbers. After the failure of the Vaudeville production, the composer arranged various numbers out of the twenty-seven in the form of a suite, and these were performed at a Pasdeloup concert in Paris on November 10, 1872. Ten years after the composer's death the play of Daudet, together with Bizet's music in its revised form, was revived in Paris, and it has since been repeatedly performed there.
The plot of "L'Arlésienne" is thus related by Mr. Philip Hale: "Fréderi, a young farmer of Carmague, and the son of Rose Mamaï, of Castelet, is madly in love with a girl of Arles, a brunette who is irresistible in the farandole; [20] and he would fain wed her. She is not seen in the drama. Fréderi is told at last that she is unworthy the love of any honest man; and he, thinking that contempt can kill passion, swears he will forget her. The baleful beauty of the woman haunts him day and night. The maiden Vivette, with whom he has grown up, wishes to console him; but, when he would woo her, the woman of Arles comes between them. Thus tortured by jealousy, hatred, love, despair, on a night when the peasants are celebrating the Festival of Saint Éloi, and dancing the farandole to the sound of flute and tambourine, Fréderi hurls himself from the garret-window of the farm-house and dashes his skull against the pavement of the court.
"As a contrast to this furious passion there is the pure love of the long-separated shepherd Balthazar and Mère Renaud. There is also the Innocent, the young brother of Fréderi, whose brain begins to work only as the tragedy deepens, and at last is awakened to full consciousness by the catastrophe."
The connection of the several numbers of Bizet's suite with the action of the play may be briefly indicated:
I. PRELUDE