Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875), registered at birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, is a French composer of the Romantic era.

Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieves few successes before his final work, Carmen, which will become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet wins many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857.

He is recognized as an outstanding pianist, though he chooses not to capitalize on this skill and rarely performs in public.

Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he finds that the main Parisian opera theaters prefer the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers.

His keyboard and orchestral compositions are likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalls, and he earns his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others.

Restless for success, he begins many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which are abandoned.

Neither of his two operas that reach the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—are immediately successful.

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during which Bizet served in the National Guard, he had little success with his one-act opera Djamileh, though an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne was instantly popular.

The production of Bizet's final opera, Carmen, is delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder will offend audiences.

After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet is convinced that the work is a failure; he dies of a heart attack three months later, unaware that it will prove a spectacular and enduring success.

Bizet's marriage to Geneviève Halévyhad been intermittently happy and produced one son.

After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, is generally neglected.

Manuscripts are given away or lost, and published versions of his works are frequently revised and adapted by other hands.

He founds no school and has no obvious disciples or successors.

After years of neglect, his works begin to be performed more frequently in the twentieth century.

Later commentators will acclaim him as a composer of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical theater.
 

Showing 1 events out of 1 total