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    Bizet

    Guides

    Bizet: 10 facts about the great composer

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    The French Romantic composer Georges Bizet is best known for the world’s favourite opera 'Carmen', and 'The Pearl Fishers', but he achieved little success during his lifetime.

    1. Georges Bizet composer Carmen

      1. A child prodigy

      Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. His father was a singing teacher and his mother was an accomplished pianist who gave Georges his first lessons. The Paris Conservatoire was so impressed by the boy’s abilities that it waived its age rule and offered him a place when he was nine.

    2. Charles Gounod composer

      2. Inspired by Gounod

      A brilliant student, Bizet won many prizes for his outstanding piano playing. The composer Gounod became a lasting influence on his musical style. Shortly after his 17th birthday, Bizet wrote his own symphony, which bore a close resemblance to Gounod's – note for note in some passages.

    3. Giachino Rossini

      3. Meeting Rossini

      As a young man, Bizet became a regular guest at Offenbach's parties, where among other musicians he met the veteran Rossini, who Bizet described as ‘the greatest of them all, because like Mozart, he has all the virtues.’

    4. Georges Bizet Carmen composer

      4. Unsuccessful early compositions

      Bizet’s early keyboard and orchestral compositions were largely ignored and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing other people’s music.

    5. Franz Liszt composer pianist

      5. Admired by Liszt

      In May 1861, at a dinner party at which Liszt was present, Bizet astonished everyone by sight reading one of the maestro's most difficult piano pieces. Liszt said, ‘I thought there were only two men able to surmount the difficulties ... there are three, and ... the youngest is perhaps the boldest and most brilliant.’

    6. Georges Bizet composer Carmen

      6. Marriage to Geneviève Halévy

      In June 1869, Bizet married Geneviève Halévy, the nervously unstable daughter of the composer Fromental Halévy. Her family initially opposed the match, considering him an unsuitable catch: ‘penniless, left-wing, anti-religious and Bohemian’. The marriage was intermittently happy and produced a son, Jacques.

    7. Georges Bizet composer Pearl Fishers

      7. Operatic failures

      Bizet started many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which he abandoned. Neither of the two operas that reached the stage - 'The Pearl Fishers' and 'La jolie fille de Perth' – were immediately successful. 'The Pearl Fishers' later won more popularity for its beautiful duet. Pictured is a 1954 production of 'The Pearl Fishers' at Sadler's Wells, London.

    8. Georges Bizet composer L'Arlesienne suite

      8. Success with L'Arlésienne Suite

      After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, during which Bizet served in the National Guard, he had a hit with an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play 'L'Arlésienne'. The music was dismissed by critics as too complex for popular taste but the suite received an enthusiastic reception.

    9. Georges Bizet composer Carmen Covent Garden 1947 Kenneth Neate Edith Coates

      9. The arrival of 'Carmen'

      The production of Bizet's final opera, 'Carmen', was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend. In the audience at the opera's premiere were Massenet and Saint-Saëns who loved it. Gounod accused Bizet of plagiarism and much of the press comment was negative. Bizet was convinced that the opera was a failure. Pictured is the 1947 Covent Garden production of 'Carmen'.

    10. Georges Bizet composer Carmen cigarette card

      10. Posthumous appreciation

      Bizet, who was a heavy smoker, died of a heart attack aged 36, three months after the première of Carmen, unaware that his opera would become a spectacular and enduring success. His other works also began to be performed more frequently in the 20th century and he is now recognised as a composer of brilliance and originality.

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