Those following us on our X/BlueSky socials (and of course, local arcade goers) are already aware of a nasty situation that is heavily impacting current Nijiiro going-ons: a global suspension of the ALL.Net networking services, leaving regular gameplay on active Nijiiro Version cabs unavailable, unless game center-operator setups (like service play/offline) are engaged.
Never a more apt moment for yet another console-exclusive pick, wouldn't you say?
L'Arlésienne Bizet
アルルの女／ビゼー
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS2 7 Wii U3 RC |  | ★4 174 | ★5 234 | ★6 409 | ★7 539 | - |
120-178
clsarl (Classic - L'Arlésienne)On music grounds, L'Arlésienne (The woman from Arles) is born as a series of incidental music in 27 numbers for chorus and small orchestra, originally scored by Georges Bizet for a stage drama of the same name. Said drama, penned by French novelist Alphonse Daudet, was originally released as a short story for the French newspaper L'Événement in 1866, and later on as part of the author's Lettres de Mon Moulin (lit. 'Letters From My Windmill'), in 1869. The story is about a peasant called Fréderi, who fell in love with the titular "girls from Arles" and ultimately managed to get engaged with; however, at their wedding's eve, Fréderi discovers an act of infidelty of hers and becomes mad as a result, to the point of ending his own life despite the attempts from the rest of his family. While the stage drama was based on this short story, Daudet revealed the plot to be inspired by recent happenings (of the time): the suicide of one of the nephews of writer Frédéric Mistral, as a consequence of amour fou. The fact that the same Arlésienne is never seen in the eponymous play also had a hand in cementing the term 'arlesienne' in modern French theathrical lingo, in order to refer to a person who is notably missing from a place or situation.
The stage play, commissioned by stage director Léon Carvalho, premiered on October 1st in 1872 at Paris's Théâtre du Vaudeville (the Gaudemont, nowadays), with Bizet's incidental music on toe. It was originally intended for a later premiere date, but with short notice it was set on that day to replace a different play that was banned by censors of the time, causing much indignation from the audience at the premiere and a meager following in general, as it was retired after only 21 performances. The score, however, was successful enough for it to have commissioned a couple of suites around it, one in November 1872 by the same Georges Bizet and another in 1879, released four years after Bizet's death.
L'Arlésienne found in Taiko titles is based on the Farandole movement from the posthumous Bizet suite, the aptly-dubbed L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2, commissioned by publisher Antony Chaudens to one of his (uncredited) friends in the music scene, nowadays believed to be the America-born Ernest Guiraud. Considering how most of the material in the No.2 suite is based on the material Bizet already wrote for the first one, the 2nd one is commonly credited to the same Bizet instead of the (again, never officially credited) arranger, which we can also see with its more modern releases of the song in Taiko for the subtitle. It's also worth mentioning this suite's Farandole movement was also used for a couple of Japanese commercials, for SS Pharmaceuticals's Eskap (エスカップ) and assorted NTT DoCoMo-compatible smartphones!
Ever since its debut for the final PS2 game, the case was made by home-geared Donders for this song's Oni being rated lower for the difficulty supplied, considering the seemingly-interlinked 1/16 gameplay with no breaks of sorts and coupled with the steadily-increasing pace via BPM shifts that may also extort a few dents to accuracy via silver/OK hits. Considering the hefty note package it luggages around, I might argue this might ring true for the ongoing rating standards as well!
