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.
© TiVo Staff /TiVo
-
100 Must-Have Heroic Classics
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC el 7 jul. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
19th Century Classical
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 24 ene. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Habanera (From "Carmen")
Folk - Editado por Classicato el 24 abr. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Bizet: Oeuvres pianistiques (Piano Works)
Clásica - Editado por VDE-GALLO el 16 dic. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: An Introduction
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 27 jun. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tibbett in Opera
Música vocal (profana y sacra) - Editado por Prima Voce el 1 ene. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen
Vincenzo Bellezza, Ebe Stignani, Beniamino Gigli
Ópera - Editado por Urania el 30 nov. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Bizet, Carmen Suite No. 1
Clásica - Editado por Classical.com Music el 16 feb. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Feel Good Classics: 100 Songs to Make You Feel Happy
Clásica - Editado por Dream Collection el 4 ago. 2015
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Digitally Remastered)
Clásica - Editado por EMG Classical el 10 abr. 2013
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 mar. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Sampler
Clásica - Editado por Piros Comercial Digital el 15 abr. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Royal Opera House Covent Garden: An Early History on Record
Música vocal (profana y sacra) - Editado por Prima Voce el 1 ene. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet - Great Recordings
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 29 may. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie n° 1 - L'Arlésienne, suites n° 1 & 2
Clásica - Editado por Classical.com Music el 16 feb. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Los Grandes de la Musica Clasica - George Bizet Vol. 1
Clásica - Editado por ClassicalPirosDigital el 20 jun. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Symphony In C Major - Carmen Suites No. 1 & 2
Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra, Anton Nanut, Marko Munih
Música sinfónica - Editado por Maestro el 1 ene. 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suite Carmen
Clásica - Editado por Music Hit Factory el 1 dic. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carmen, Bizet, Grandes Óperas
Clásica - Editado por Piros - Lucas el 7 jul. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Bizet: Carmen (Highlights in English)
Ópera - Editado por The Digital Gramophone el 20 oct. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo