Bizet / Georges / Donostiarra - L'arlesienne - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce a revelatory new perspective on Georges Bizet's much-loved L'Arlesienne 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'Arlesienne is, as Tolansky remarks in his illuminating notes, an Inchevocative and poignant tale about broken love set in a small Provençal communityInch. One that inspired Bizet Inchto compose some of the most heartrendingly poignant tones he ever createdInch. More familiar in the two Suites extracted from the theatrical score, L'Arlesienne is heard here in it's original, complete version, reconstructed by Dominique Riffaud in a rare, 1985 recording by Orfeon 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'Arlesienne was featured on SOMM's Favourite Orchestral Classics by the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Iain Sutherland (ARIADNE 5012), hailed Inchan exquisite collectionInch 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 InchexemplaryInch. A noted, widely published and broadcast music commentator and documentary maker, Jon Tolansky's previous SOMM collaborations include Mahler Pioneers (SOMM Ariadne 5022-2), hailed as Incha major addition to the catalogueInch by OperaWire, and the International Classical Music Award-nominated Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic - Live (SOMM Ariadne 5017-2). More recently his exclusive interview with Ian Partridge was featured in the Gramophone Editor's Choice of the tenor's Schube