L’ Arlésienne

L'Arlésienne (The Girl from Arles) began as a short story by Alphonse Daudet, published in the daily newspaper L'Événement in August 1866, and three years later included in his famous Lettres de mon moulin (Letters from my Windmill). It was inspired by a real event: the suicide of a nephew of the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral, in despair over his passion for a young woman. In 1872 the author made a stage adaptation of the piece, a play in three acts and five tableaux, for which he retained the main elements of the story, but changed the names of the characters. Frédéri is about to marry a girl from Arles (“l’Arlésienne”), when a horseman (“gardien de chevaux”) by the name of Mitifio reveals that for the past two years she has been his mistress; as proof, he produces love letters he has received from her. Frédéri’s family arrange another marriage for him, but Frédéri is unable to forget his love for the girl from Arles. Chancing to meet Mitifio, he learns that the latter plans to abduct her. Overwhelmed by the upsurge of feelings, Frédéri commits suicide by jumping from the window of the hayloft. The director of the Théâtre du Vaudeville, Léon Carvalho, commissioned Bizet to compose music for Daudet’s play: 27 numbers for chorus (8 sopranos I, 8 sopranos II, 4 tenors, 4 basses) and orchestra. The play, beginning with an overture, is punctuated with entr’actes, but most of the other, fairly brief interventions accompany the action on stage. Bizet drew some of his inspiration from a collection of Provençal melodies by François Vidal, published in Avignon in 1864. Although the work was poorly received and the production closed after 19 performances, the music, arranged as a concert suite, proved highly successful. Bizet later adapted the Pastorale (no. 7 in the first Arlésienne Suite) as a song entitled Le Matin (included in his collection Vingt Mélodies), and the Mélodrame (no. 19) became the song Lamento.