Description

FIRST EDITION of the score for piano and voice conceived for Alphonse Daudet's drama in three acts. However, the incidental music was not enough to ensure the success of the play, which premiered at the Théâtre Vaudeville on 1 October 1872 and ran for only nineteen performances.

PRECIOUS AUTOGRAPH SIGNED LETTER FROM GEORGES BIZET TO JULES PADELOUPa conductor who was a major contributor to the fame of L'Arlésienne :

"to J. Pasdeloup
His friend
Georges Bizet

In fact, within a month of the play being withdrawn, Bizet adapted extracts from the score into a suite of four movements for symphony orchestra. Jules Pasdeloup conducted the first performance, given at the Cirque d'hiver on 10 November 1872 by the Concerts populaires orchestra, known today (under the name Orchestre Pasdeloup) as the oldest of the Parisian association orchestras still in operation. L'Arlésienne was a triumphant success and is now regarded as one of the masterpieces of the author of Carmen.

A few annotations in pencil, possibly in the hand of Jules Pasdeloup.
Copy of the first edition with the error in the time signature of the choir.Bright sunshine"(p.14, n°5), given as C instead of 6/8 (Hugh Macdonald, The Bizet Catalogue).

NICE PROVENANCE.