bizet's suite contains several folk-like themes for the music but also incorporated three existing tunes from a folk-music collection published by vidal of aix in 1864: "", the "danse dei chivau-frus", and "er dou guet". the score achieves powerful dramatic ends with the most economic of means. still, it received poor reviews in the wake of the premiere and is not much performed nowadays in its original form. the play itself was not successful, closing after only 21 performances. it had been staged as a last-minute replacement for another play, which had been banned by the censors, and the audience was less than favourably disposed to the new play.