This concert pays tribute to composer Georges Bizet with three of his most famous works: Les Pêcheurs de perles, L’Arlésienne and Carmen.Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite for percussion and string orchestra, adapted from Bizet’s opera Carmen, has 13 segments that are innovative in terms of melody and rhythm, surprising listeners with unusual turns. Bizet’s first opera, Les Pêcheurs de perles, tells a love story set in Sri Lanka, fully demonstrating the extraordinary melodic creation and orchestration skills of a 25-year-old composer. Carmen is probably one of the most famous operatic works in the repertory today. And the incidental music to L’Arlésienne is well-loved on the concert stage.