The Ottawa Symphony November 14, 2016 concert, “Colours of Europe” featured a pan-European sampling of some of the continents’ best-known composers in celebration of the important relationship between Canada and the European Union. In this episode we feature a performance of French composer Georges Bizet’s suite no. 2 from L’Arlesienne, showcasing the talent of our orchestra and our principal flute, Jeffrey Miller.

Bizet wrote this music to accompany a play, which was performed in Paris at the Theatre du Vaudeville in 1872. Unfortunately, at the time, neither the play nor the music met with much success, and the play closed after only 21 performances. Nonetheless, Bizet later arranged his work into a suite of four movements. L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2, also written for full orchestra, was arranged and published in 1879, four years after Bizet's death, by Ernest Guiraud, using Bizet's original themes. The second suite is generally credited to Bizet since he wrote the themes and the basic orchestration.

Curators | Nos conservateurs

Dr. David Gardner
Ottawa Symphony Historian | Historien de l’ Orchestre symphonique d’ Ottawa

Alain Trudel
Ottawa Symphony Music Director | directeur musicale

About the composer of this piece

Alexandre César Léopold Bizet (25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned. Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful.

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during which Bizet served in the National Guard, he had little success with his one-act opera Djamileh, though an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne was instantly popular. The production of Bizet's final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure; he died of a heart attack three months later, unaware that it would prove a spectacular and enduring success.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bizet

Read All About It!

Read the programme notes written by Dr. David Gardner for an Ottawa Symphony performance in 1976.

Did you know?

“A vigorous, rosy-cheeked jaunt through a sunny Provence.”

Read the Ottawa Citizen November 14, 2016 concert review by critic Natasha Gauthier.

Smoke … But No Fire

Bizet was a heavy smoker. He died of a heart attack aged 36, three months after the première of Carmen. He died unaware that this opera and many other of his works would become enduring successes and that he would, in time, be recognised as one of the greats.

More Fun Facts about Bizet on ClassicFM

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