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Georges Bizet (1838—1875)

1. Georges Bizet was born in Paris on October 25, 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 it waived its age rule and offered him a place at age nine.

2. 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, a close resemblance to Gounod’s – note for note in some passages.

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

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

7. Bizet started many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which he abandoned. Neither of the two operas which reached the stage – Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth – were immediately successful. Les pêcheurs de perles later won more popularity for its beautiful duet.

8. 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 of 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. The production of Bizet’s final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears its themes of betrayal and murder would be too offensive. In the audience at the opera’s premiere were Massenet and Saint-Saëns, who both loved it. Gounod accused Bizet of plagiarism and much of the press was negative. Bizet was convinced the opera was a failure.

10. Bizet, who was a heavy smoker, died of a heart attack aged 36, three months after the première of Carmen, unaware his opera would become a spectacular and enduring success.