The Girl from Arles

Tonight’s concert is conducted by Mark Elder (a Principal Artist of the OAE), with all the on-stage action in a new translation by Jeremy Sams.

Bizet’s music achieves his trademark colour by weaving in traditional Provençal tunes. Its evocative sound-world paved the way for Bizet’s last and greatest work, the opera Carmen.

Although best known through the concert suites for full orchestra, this performance restores the composer’s original orchestration, with the 26 musicians becoming as much a part of the drama as the actors on-stage.

Bizet’s score demonstrates his flair for colourful orchestration, imitating local instruments such as the tambourin (drum) and galoubet (pipe), and includes one of the earliest appearances of the recently invented saxophone in an orchestra.

Alphonse Daudet’s story tells of a young man torn between two lovers – a wholesome young woman from the countryside and a tantalising woman from Arles – and the consequences of his decisions.

Premiered 1872, the production was initially unsuccessful as melodrama was falling out of fashion. It survived thanks to the popularity of Bizet’s music.

Reappraisal in the following decades led to a revival in Paris in 1885, which ran for over 400 performances.