Bizet: Farandole from L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2 // QATAR PHILHARMONIC

Performed by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by David Niemann L’Arlésienne (usually translated as ’The Girl from Arles’) suite is the incidental music to Alphonse Daudet’s play composed by Georges Bizet for the first performance of the play on 1 October 1872 at the Vaudeville Theatre (now a cinema known as the Gaumont Opéra). It consists of 27 numbers (some only a few bars) for voice, chorus, and small orchestra, ranging from short solos to longer entr’actes. Bizet himself played the harmonium backstage at the premiere performance. Bizet wrote several folk-like themes for the music but also incorporated three existing tunes from a folk-music collection published by Vidal of Aix in 1864: La Marcho di Rei (The March of the Kings), the Danse dei Chivau-Frus, and Er dou Guet. The score achieves powerful dramatic ends with the most economic of means. Still, it received poor reviews in the wake of the premiere and is