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
Música sinfónica - Editado por Radio Tower Records el 24-10-2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
50 Must-Have Overture Masterpieces
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC el 24-12-2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carmen Suite
Georges Bizet, Christian Lindberg, Liceu Opera Orchestra
Clásica - Editado por EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE el 19-04-2022
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
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 02-07-2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best of the Great Composers
Clásica - Editado por Lifestyle Music Group el 01-07-1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart in Love
Georges Bizet, Luiza Borac, Romanian National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, Horia Andreescu
Clásica - Editado por Profil el 17-05-2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Bizet: Carmen Suites Nos. 1 & 2, L'Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Radio Symphony Orchestra Ljubljana
Ópera - Editado por Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. el 27-02-2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Je Crois Entendre Encore
Konstantinos Tsahouridis, ThroDef, Georges Bizet
Electrónica - Editado por Meditelectro el 07-02-2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Bizet: Suite Carmen No. 1 y 2
Clásica - Editado por Piros Comercial Digital el 18-06-2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rediscovering French Operas in 21 Volumes - Vol. 3/21 : Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Ópera - Editado por ISIS el 03-02-2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
100 Must-Have Heroic Classics
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC el 07-07-2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
19th Century Classical
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 24-01-2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Favorites - Bizet: L'Arlesienne - Carmen
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra & Janos Sandor
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC. el 07-07-2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Habanera (From "Carmen")
Folk - Editado por Classicato el 24-04-2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: An Introduction
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 27-06-2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen
Vincenzo Bellezza, Ebe Stignani, Beniamino Gigli
Ópera - Editado por Urania el 30-11-1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 12-03-2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Digitally Remastered)
Clásica - Editado por EMG Classical el 10-04-2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo