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
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Bizet: Carmen Suites and L' Arlésienne Suites
Classical - Released by Past Classics on Oct 28, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: L'Arlesienne Suites Nos 1 and 2
South German Philharmonic Orchestra, Alfred Scholz
Symphonic Music - Released by Maestro on Jan 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carmen - Georges Bizet
Opera - Released by JamadaDigital on Feb 14, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
50 Must-Have Overture Masterpieces
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on Dec 24, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carmen Suite
Georges Bizet, Christian Lindberg, Liceu Opera Orchestra
Classical - Released by EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE on Apr 19, 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Symphony in C Major - Carmen Suite No. 1 - L'Arlésienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Classical - Released by Danacord Records on Sep 1, 2016
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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 - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Jul 2, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best of the Great Composers
Classical - Released by Lifestyle Music Group on Jul 1, 1990
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Mozart in Love
Georges Bizet, Luiza Borac, Romanian National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, Horia Andreescu
Classical - Released by Profil on May 17, 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Pearl Fishers
Opera - Released by Opera d'Oro on Mar 14, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen Suites Nos. 1 & 2, L'Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2
Radio Symphony Orchestra Ljubljana
Opera - Released by Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. on Feb 27, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen Suite No. 1 & 2 - Symphony in C Major, WD 33
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Frédéric Lodéon
Classical - Released by Cascavelle on Feb 16, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Je Crois Entendre Encore
Konstantinos Tsahouridis, ThroDef, Georges Bizet
Electronic - Released by Meditelectro on Feb 7, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Classical Best Opéra
Classical - Released by Armasi on Aug 24, 2020
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Bizet: Suite Carmen No. 1 y 2
Classical - Released by Piros Comercial Digital on Jun 18, 2013
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Bizet Carmen Suites 1 & 2 - Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Ballet Suite
The Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Stradivari Classics on Aug 29, 2013
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Bizet's Carman - [The Dave Cash Collection]
Classical - Released by The Dave Cash Collection - OMP on Apr 5, 2010
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100 Must-Have Heroic Classics
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on Jul 7, 2015
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19th Century Classical
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Jan 24, 2024
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Classical Favorites - Bizet: L'Arlesienne - Carmen
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra & Janos Sandor
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC. on Jul 7, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo