Georges Bizet: L’Arlésienne, Op. 23 – Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse & Michel Plasson

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce a revelatory new perspective on Georges Bizet’s much-loved L’Arlésienne with the re-issue of his complete stage music for Alphonse Daudet’s play and a new dramatization of Daudet’s original short story by Jon Tolansky. First staged in 1872, L’Arlésienne is, as Tolansky remarks in his illuminating notes, an “evocative and poignant tale about broken love set in a small Provençal community”. One that inspired Bizet “to compose some of the most heartrendingly poignant tones he ever created”. More familiar in the two Suites extracted from the theatrical score, L’Arlésienne is heard here in its original, complete version, reconstructed by Dominique Riffaud in a rare, 1985 recording by Orféon Donostiarra and Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson. A bonus track features a new adaptation of Daudet’s short story, dramatized and narrated by Tolansky, and illustrated by musical excerpts from Bizet’s incidental music. The Minuetto from L’Arlésienne was featured on SOMM’s Favourite Orchestral Classics by the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Iain Sutherland (ARIADNE 5012), hailed “an exquisite collection” by Classical Music Daily, while two pieces from Carmen were given a mischievous jazz treatment on the Art Deco Trio’s Classical Changes (SOMMCD 0663), declared by Gramophone as “exemplary”.