Adieux de l'hôtesse arabe

One of the most seductive of all settings from Les Orientales must be Bizet’s Les Adieux de l’Hôtesse arabe, which is even more picturesque in its local colouring than his version of Autre Guitare. Written in 1866, the same year as Guitare, it is rare among settings of its kind and of its time in that the exoticism of the verse is reflected not only in the piano part and the melodic line but also in a voluptuous use of the voice: the initially modest “hôtesse” of the title becomes a provocative Arabian Carmen before she floats away at the end.