I’m not cut out for Symphony. I need Theatre.
Georges Bizet
THE RECIPE FOR A GOOD OMELETTE? LOTS OF LOVE AND A LITTLE HERBES DE PROVENCE… For this evening’s tribute to the composer Georges Bizet, who died 150 years ago, two works are on the bill: L’Arlésienne, based on Alphonse Daudet’s short story of the same name, and Le Docteur Miracle, a one-act operetta whose aria “quatuor de l’omelette” (omelette quartet) was sung the night of the first performance at the Bouffes Parisiens theatre on 9 April 1857. Georges Bizet was only 18 at the time, and he had tied for first place in the competition launched by the theatre’s director, Jacques Offenbach. Forgotten for almost a century, the operetta was rediscovered in 1951, and for this new production, based on an idea by the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de Musique Romantique Française in Venice, Pierre Lebon designed the costumes and staged both works.
It is generally agreed that we know L’Arlésienne better today. In this piece, we discover the stage music, thanks to an adaptation in the form of a musical tale for a narrator, an actor-dancer, two dancers and four singers, produced by Hervé Lacombe musicologist and biographer of Georges Bizet. The epic adventure of Doctor Miracle, who tricks the Podestà of Padua to win over his daughter Laurette provokes laughter and emotion because, despite charlatanism and poison, love and song always win the end!
