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Georges Bizet
October 25, 1838 - June 3, 1875
born in Paris, France, composed during the Romantic period
born in Paris, France, composed during the Romantic period
Known for one of the world's most popular operas, Carmen, Georges Bizet deserves attention as well for other works of remarkable melodic charm. Many of his works received cool receptions on their premieres but are now considered central to the repertory of classical music.
Bizet was born in Paris on October 25, 1838, and grew up in a happy, musical family that encouraged his talents. He learned to read music at the same time he learned to read letters, and equally well. Entering the Paris Conservatory before he was ten, he earned first prize in solfège within six months, a first prize in piano in 1852, and eventually, the coveted Prix de Rome in 1857 for his cantata Clovis et Clotilde. His teachers had included Marmontel for piano and Halévy for composition, but the greatest influence on him was Charles Gounod, of whom Bizet later said "You were the beginning of my life as an artist." Bizet himself hid away his Symphony in C, written when he was 17, feeling it was too much like its models, Gounod's symphonies. The two years spent in Rome after winning his prize, would be the only extensive time, and a greatly impressionable one, that Bizet would spend outside of Paris in his brief life. When he returned to Paris, he lost confidence in his natural talents and began to substitute dry Germanic or academic writing for his own developing idiom. He composed a one-act opera for production at the Opéra-Comique, but the theater's director engaged him to write a full-length opera instead, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). It was not a success at the time, but despite a few weaknesses, the work was revived in 1886, and its sheer beauty has earned it a respected position among the lesser-played operatic repertory. In 1863 Bizet's father bought land outside Paris where he built two bungalows, one of which Bizet frequently used as a compositional retreat. He began a friendship (apparently not a physical one) with a neighbor-woman named Céleste Mogador, a former actress, author, courtesan, circus rider, and dance-hall girl. She is said to have been the model for his masterpiece's title role of Carmen. Bizet earned his living as an accompanist and publishing house arranger. Meanwhile, he poured his creative efforts into an immense five-act opera in the grand tradition, Ivan IV, but it was never performed. This proved to be a pattern for the rest of his career. Bizet would work hard to get an opera produced, and even if he did, it would usually receive only a handful of performances. Bizet's corpus of unfinished works is large, and testifies to his unsettled existence and his difficulty in finding a place in France's notoriously hierarchical and conservative musical world. In 1869 Bizet married Geneviève Halévy, daughter of his teacher. The marriage did not turn out to be a happy one, primarily due to her family's history of mental illness. In 1872, Bizet's splendid incidental music for the play L'arlèsienne was poorly received, but when the composer assembled the music into an orchestral suite for a November performance, it found great acclaim. At last confident of his creative vision, Bizet was able to steer his final masterpiece through various obstacles, including the objections of singers and theater directors who were shocked by Carmen's subject matter. When the opera had its premiere on March 3, 1875, it was received barely well enough to hang on for future productions. Although it took audiences only a few weeks to catch on, Bizet died convinced it was a failure. ~ All Music Guide, Rovi
Bizet was born in Paris on October 25, 1838, and grew up in a happy, musical family that encouraged his talents. He learned to read music at the same time he learned to read letters, and equally well. Entering the Paris Conservatory before he was ten, he earned first prize in solfège within six months, a first prize in piano in 1852, and eventually, the coveted Prix de Rome in 1857 for his cantata Clovis et Clotilde. His teachers had included Marmontel for piano and Halévy for composition, but the greatest influence on him was Charles Gounod, of whom Bizet later said "You were the beginning of my life as an artist." Bizet himself hid away his Symphony in C, written when he was 17, feeling it was too much like its models, Gounod's symphonies. The two years spent in Rome after winning his prize, would be the only extensive time, and a greatly impressionable one, that Bizet would spend outside of Paris in his brief life. When he returned to Paris, he lost confidence in his natural talents and began to substitute dry Germanic or academic writing for his own developing idiom. He composed a one-act opera for production at the Opéra-Comique, but the theater's director engaged him to write a full-length opera instead, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). It was not a success at the time, but despite a few weaknesses, the work was revived in 1886, and its sheer beauty has earned it a respected position among the lesser-played operatic repertory. In 1863 Bizet's father bought land outside Paris where he built two bungalows, one of which Bizet frequently used as a compositional retreat. He began a friendship (apparently not a physical one) with a neighbor-woman named Céleste Mogador, a former actress, author, courtesan, circus rider, and dance-hall girl. She is said to have been the model for his masterpiece's title role of Carmen. Bizet earned his living as an accompanist and publishing house arranger. Meanwhile, he poured his creative efforts into an immense five-act opera in the grand tradition, Ivan IV, but it was never performed. This proved to be a pattern for the rest of his career. Bizet would work hard to get an opera produced, and even if he did, it would usually receive only a handful of performances. Bizet's corpus of unfinished works is large, and testifies to his unsettled existence and his difficulty in finding a place in France's notoriously hierarchical and conservative musical world. In 1869 Bizet married Geneviève Halévy, daughter of his teacher. The marriage did not turn out to be a happy one, primarily due to her family's history of mental illness. In 1872, Bizet's splendid incidental music for the play L'arlèsienne was poorly received, but when the composer assembled the music into an orchestral suite for a November performance, it found great acclaim. At last confident of his creative vision, Bizet was able to steer his final masterpiece through various obstacles, including the objections of singers and theater directors who were shocked by Carmen's subject matter. When the opera had its premiere on March 3, 1875, it was received barely well enough to hang on for future productions. Although it took audiences only a few weeks to catch on, Bizet died convinced it was a failure. ~ All Music Guide, Rovi
Selected Discography
x
Track List: A Bizet Weekend
Title: Carmen, Opera
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
x
Track List: Bizet - Carmen / Gheorghiu · Alagna · Capitole de Toulouse · Plasson
Disc 1
Title: Carmen, Opéra-comique In 4 Acts
Disc 2
Disc 3
x
Track List: Bizet: Carmen (Complete Opera); Mirella Freni; Jon Vickers; Grace Bumbry
Disc 1
Title: Carmen, Opera
Disc 2
x
Track List: Bizet: Carmen (Highlights)
x
Track List: Bizet: Carmen - Suites 1 & 2, L'arlesienne - Suites 1 & 2
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 1 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
x
Track List: Bizet: Carmen Suites 1 & 2; L'Arlesienne Suites 1 & 2
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 1 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
x
Track List: Bizet: Carmen, L'Arlesienne, Etc.
Title: Overture "Patrie", For Orchestra, Op. 19
Title: Carmen Suites For Orchestra Nos. 1 & 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Petite Suite, Pieces (5) For Orchestra (Orchestration Of Jeux D'enfants Nos. 6, 3, 2, 11, 12)
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: La Jolie Fille De Perth, Orchestral Suite
x
Track List: Bizet: Djamileh
Title: Djamileh, Opéra-comique In 1 Act
x
Track List: Bizet: L'Arlésienne; Carmen Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 1 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
x
Track List: Bizet: Oeuvres Pianistiques
Title: Variations Chromatiques De Concert, For Piano
Title: Casilda, Polka-mazurka For Piano
Title: Nocturne For Piano No. 1 In F Major
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Extase, For Piano (uncertain Authenticity)
Title: Grande Valse De Concert, For Piano In E Flat Major
Title: Danse D'Almées, For Piano (uncertain Authenticity)
Title: Les Chants Du Rhin, Pieces (6) For Piano
Title: Chanson Provençale, For Piano (uncertain Authenticicty)
Title: Carnaval, Transcription For 2 Pianos Or Piano After The Finale Of Symphony "Roma"
x
Track List: Bizet: Orchestral Works
Disc 1
Title: Symphony In C Major ("No. 1")
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
Title: La Jolie Fille De Perth, Orchestral Suite
Disc 2
Title: Overture "Patrie", For Orchestra, Op. 19
Title: Carmen, Opera
Title: Petite Suite, Pieces (5) For Orchestra (Orchestration Of Jeux D'enfants Nos. 6, 3, 2, 11, 12)
Title: Roma, Symphony For Orchestra In C Major
x
Track List: L'arlesienne, Suites Nos.1 & 2; Carmen 1 & 2
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 1, From The Incidental Music
Title: L' Arlésienne, Suite For Orchestra No. 2, From The Incidental Music (Arranged By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 1 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
Title: Carmen Suite For Orchestra No. 2 (Assembled By Ernest Guirard)
x
Track List: Songs by Bizet
Title: Absence, song for voice & piano
Title: Feuilles d'album (6), song cycle for voice & piano
Title: Absence, song for voice & piano
Comments
This freaked me out This isn't fake. Apparently, if you copy and paste this on ten comments in the next ten minute
his famous opera Carmen.
And Georges is pronounced Zshorzsh... that's the closest I can transcribe it without using the IPA. It's not Jor-juhs.
I usually pick first by composer then by performers. I picked a John Williams and immediately you sent me a bunch of movie composers and their sound tracks.
This is how I read it: "If at first you don't succeed (at something hard like sky-diving) then give up - its too hard for you"
Honesty translation: "If something's hard to do, it's not worth doing"
Ahh the wisdom of the new age. Is it any wonder why we are spending ourselves into oblivion?
That being said, Bizet is a great composer.
^_^
Georges' bio shows a man that demonstrates the saying "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again". We as American's need to remember that most things worth while don't come easy.