Best known for it's poignant tenor aria, Federico's Lament -E la solita storia del pastore' - L'Arlesiana is a tragic story of love, frustration and obsession. The young Enrico Caruso sang the role of the provencial farmer Federico at the opera's premiere in Milan in 1867. The Alphonse Daudet play that forms it's source, the titular girl from Arles', never appears. It is Federico's fixation with her, and his relationship with his forceful mother, that lie at the heart of the drama.