Bizet: L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1

It is difficult to understand today the critical mauling meted out to Bizet’s operatic masterpiece Carmen after its Paris premier in 1875. Act 3 was greeted with total silence. The music and characters described as vulgar and not fit for the stage by critics. Later that year, the Viennese premier set Carmen on the path to success it deserved, but by then Bizet had died aged just 37, not knowing that the opera would become one of the world’s favourites. Carmen broke new operatic ground in that the characters are real, earthy, and flawed. The portrayal of Jose’s decline from honest peasant, to soldier, to a drunk deserter and smuggler is a masterpiece of theatre. Bizet’s score is crammed full of colourful tunes that have become firm favourites. The two suites on this CD were arranged by Ernest Guiraud, who produced the sung recitatives for the production in Vienna to replace the spoken dialogue of the original. Using the preludes and entr’actes Guiraud skilfully draws material from the opera not in sequence, but in a way that makes a satisfying orchestral condensation of what the opera is about.