The Metropolitan’s academy students bring with them music that enchanted Parisian stages in the late 19th century and a symphony that holds a place of honor in the collective imagination of us all. After many adventures, Édouard Lalo managed to mount the opera The King d’Ys on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet in May 1888. A few years earlier, in 1872, Georges Bizet had added his music to the stage performance of a drama by Alphonse Daudet at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, a hall that has since disappeared. Of the orchestral suite that resulted, the initial prelude stands out, where the popular melody “The march of the kings” can be recognized. Much more famous is Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. Nowadays, we are all familiar with the melody that begins its first movement, if only because it appears so often in movies and advertisements. But beyond those bars there are fabulous paths to follow. There are four movements in which the transparency of the classical style coexists with romantic drama, in an improbable balance between expressive exaltation and formal restraint. A smile of uneasiness. A lament wrapped in hope.

From Mozart to the Theatres of Paris
Metropolitan’s Academic Orchestra

W. A. Mozart Symphony No. 40
E. Lalo Overture to the opera The King d’Ys
G. Bizet Suite No. 1 from the music for the play L’Arlésienne

Jean-Marc Burfin and/or Orchestra Conducting Students – ANSO musical direction