Georges Bizet, born Alexandre César Léopold on 25 October 1838, was a French composer of the Romantic era. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, he won many prizes, including the Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. He died of a heart attack three months after the premiere of Carmen on 3 March 1875.
About Georges Bizet in brief
Georges Bizet, born Alexandre César Léopold on 25 October 1838, was a French composer of the Romantic era. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, he won many prizes, including the Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. His career stalled, and he earned his living by arranging and transcribing the music of others. After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, he had little success with his one-act opera Djamileh, though an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet’s play L’Arlésienne was instantly popular. He died of a heart attack three months after the premiere of Carmen on 3 March 1875, unaware that it would prove a spectacular and enduring success. After years of neglect, his works began to be performed more frequently in the 20th century. Later commentators have acclaimed him as a composer of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical theatre. He is best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, but he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.
He also composed a few works, including at least one published song. His father was a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training. In 1837, Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect; the Delsartes were a cultured and highly musical family. At least one author has suggested that his mother was from a Jewish family but this is not substantiated in any of his official biographies. Georges, an only child, showed early aptitude for music and quickly picked up the basics of musical notation from his mother, who probably gave him his first piano lessons. He won first prize in solfège within six months; he made an early impression within six months of his 10th birthday. He married Geneviève Halévy, who was intermittently happy and produced one son. The couple had one son, Georges. The family moved to Paris in 1848, and Georges was even nine years old when he was admitted to the conservatoire. He even even convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the Conservatoire even though he was still old. Joseph Meifred, the horn virtuoso who was a member of the horn Committee of Studies, was so impressed by the boy’s demonstration of his skills that he waived the rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available.
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