The popular suites from Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, and his incidental music for Alphonse Daudet's play, L'Arlésienne, are staples of the concert hall. Few can deny the infectiousness of Bizet's melodies, and most accept that these suites are fairly representative of the original stage works. Outside the theater, however, Bizet's music loses its narrative connection and much of its tension, and these suites are often played routinely, without a dramaturgical sense of their origins. The
Ulster Orchestra, led by
Yan Pascal Tortelier, combines the two Carmen Suites in a rearranged sequence to match the opera's scenes; while this seems in accord with Bizet's intentions, the new ordering does not make the performance more effective. An adequate reading, it nonetheless fails to ignite with operatic passions and exciting color, and suddenly fizzles out with the extremely soft ending of the Aragonaise. The "storyline" of the L'Arlésienne suites is hard to follow, since the play and the music have long been separated; and Bizet's inclusion of concert pieces among the theatrical numbers makes it seem secondary anyway. Even so,
Tortelier and the orchestra play with only modest enthusiasm, and the suites receive little of the melodramatic intensity they deserve. The recording is clear and resonant, though quite soft in several numbers.