Georges Bizet
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 upon 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, both 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 his greatest influence 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 amount of 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 dancehall 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, but even so, 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, the 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 a few months to catch on, Bizet died convinced it was a failure.
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Bizet: Symphony in C Major / Jeux D'Enfants / La Jolie Fille de Perth
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet
Symphonic Music - Lançado por Radio Tower Records em 24 de out. de 2014
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50 Must-Have Overture Masterpieces
Classical - Lançado por Cobra Entertainment LLC em 24 de dez. de 2013
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Carmen Suite
Georges Bizet, Christian Lindberg, Liceu Opera Orchestra
Classical - Lançado por EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE em 19 de abr. de 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
GRANDI VOCI AGNES BALTSA Una collana dedicata con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica
Agnes Baltsa, Georges Bizet, Gioachino Rossini
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 2 de jul. de 2021
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The Very Best of the Great Composers
Classical - Lançado por Lifestyle Music Group em 1 de jul. de 1990
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Mozart in Love
Georges Bizet, Luiza Borac, Romanian National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, Horia Andreescu
Classical - Lançado por Profil em 17 de mai. de 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Pearl Fishers
Opera - Lançado por Opera d'Oro em 14 de mar. de 2000
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Bizet: Carmen Suites Nos. 1 & 2, L'Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Radio Symphony Orchestra Ljubljana
Opera - Lançado por Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. em 27 de fev. de 2014
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Je Crois Entendre Encore
Konstantinos Tsahouridis, ThroDef, Georges Bizet
Electronic - Lançado por Meditelectro em 7 de fev. de 2022
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Carmen
Opera - Lançado por Opera d'Oro em 15 de nov. de 2005
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Classical Best Opéra
Classical - Lançado por Armasi em 24 de ago. de 2020
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Bizet: Suite Carmen No. 1 y 2
Classical - Lançado por Piros Comercial Digital em 18 de jun. de 2013
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Rediscovering French Operas in 21 Volumes - Vol. 3/21 : Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Opera - Lançado por ISIS em 3 de fev. de 2017
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100 Must-Have Heroic Classics
Classical - Lançado por Cobra Entertainment LLC em 7 de jul. de 2015
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19th Century Classical
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 24 de jan. de 2024
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Classical Favorites - Bizet: L'Arlesienne - Carmen
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra & Janos Sandor
Classical - Lançado por Cobra Entertainment LLC. em 7 de jul. de 2009
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Habanera (From "Carmen")
Folk - Lançado por Classicato em 24 de abr. de 2019
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Bizet: An Introduction
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 27 de jun. de 2020
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Bizet: Carmen
Vincenzo Bellezza, Ebe Stignani, Beniamino Gigli
Opera - Lançado por Urania em 30 de nov. de 1999
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GRANDI VOCI – MARIO DEL MONACO CANZONI, RARITA' E CURIOSITA' Una collana con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica
Mario del Monaco, Richard Wagner, Georges Bizet
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 12 de mar. de 2021
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Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Digitally Remastered)
Classical - Lançado por EMG Classical em 10 de abr. de 2013
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