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Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Paris, France
Georges Bizet was
born into a family of musical talent, as both of his parents
were musicians. By the age of ten, he was admitted to the
Paris Conservatoire. There he studied counterpoint with
Zimmerman and Gounod and composition with Halévy,
and under Marmontel's tuition he became a brilliant pianist.
Bizet's exceptional powers as a composer are already apparent
in the products of his Conservatoire years, notably the
Symphony in C, a work of precocious genius dating
from 1855 (but not performed until 1935). His talent granted
him, in 1858, the Prix de Rome, which gave him three years
of financial aid to pursue composition. From that experience,
only four works survived. Upon returning home, he decided
to pursue writing. In June 1869 he married Geneviève,
daughter of his former teacher, Halévy, and the next
year they suffered the privations caused by the Franco-Prussian
war (Bizet enlisted in the National Guard). Bizet found
little time for sustained composition, but in 1871 he produced
the delightful suite for piano duet, Jeux d'enfants (some
of it scored for orchestra as the Petite Suite), and he
worked on a one-act opera, Djamileh. Both the opera
and Daudet's play L'arlésienne, for which
Bizet wrote incidental music, failed when produced in 1872,
but in neither case did this have anything to do with the
music. Bizet was convinced that in Djamileh he had found
his true path, one which he followed in composing his operatic
masterpiece, Carmen. Here Bizet reaches new levels
in the depiction of atmosphere and character. The characterization
of José, his gradual decline from a simple soldier's
peasant honesty through insurbordination, desertion and
smuggling to murder is masterly; the colour and vitality
of Carmen herself are remarkable, involving the use of the
harmonic, rhythmic instrumental procedures of Spanish dance
music, to which also the fate-laden augmented 2nds of the
Carmen motif may owe their origin. The music of Micaela
and Escamillo may be less original, but the charm of
the former and the coarseness of the latter are intentional
attributes of the characters. The opera is the supreme achievement
of Bizet and of opéra comique, a genre it has transformed
in that Bizet extended it to embrace passionate emotion
and a tragic end, purging it of artificial elements and
embuing it with a vivid expression of the torments inflicted
by sexual passion and jealousy. The work. however, was condemned
for its 'obscene' libretto, and the music was criticized
as erudite, obscure, colourless, undistinguished and unromantic.
Only after Bizet's death was its true stature appreciated,
and then at first only in the revised version by Guiraud
in which recitatives replace the original spoken dialogue
(it is only recently that the original version has been
revived). The reception of Carmen left Bizet acutely
depressed; he fell victim to another attack of quinsy and,
in June 1875, to the two heart attacks from which he died.
Works
Orchestral music
- L'arlienne (The Woman
of Arles, 1872)
- Symphony in C (1855)
Operas
- Les pêcheurs de perles
(The Pearl Fishers, 1863)
- La jolie de Perth (The Fair Maid of Perth, 1867)
- Djamileh (1872)
- Carmen (1875)
- Operetta: Le docteur miracle (1856)
Piano Duet
- Jeux d'enfants (1871)
Additional Information
For a more extensive biography,
music, and information about Bizet
http://www.hearts-ease.org/cgi-bin/conservatory_index.cgi?ID=53
Sources:
Untitled. Homepage. 2001. http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/3722/BizetGeorges.html
Sony Classical. Sony Music Entertainment.
2001. <http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/eras/romhist.html>
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