Don Procopio - Music

Music

The music is a brilliant, youthful work, free of the influence of Bizet’s teacher Charles Gounod; it is a vital and sparkling imitation of Don Pasquale. The familiar idiom is infused with original touches of harmony, orchestration and melodic turn. The ensembles are particularly successful in using all the stock devices of opera buffa: voices in thirds, staccato chord accompanying and repetition of words. Ernesto’s "Non v’e signor" is an exact parallel of Malatesta's "Bella siccome un angelo" – in both, the baritone describes his sister's charms to the old man, in D flat.

Bizet used several episodes in later works:

• a 2/4 section in the first finale – the Carnival Chorus in Act II of La jolie fille de Perth
• the chorus “Cheti piano!” – “Chante, chante encore” in Act I of Les pêcheurs de perles
• “Sulle piume” – Smith’s serenade in La jolie fille de Perth

while the March in Act I is taken from the finale of his Symphony in C of 1855.