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How To
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Georges Bizet "
Carmen Habanera" Piano Tutorial by
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Georges Bizet (
French: [ʒɔʁʒ bizɛ];
25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875), registered at birth as
Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era.
Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death,
Bizet 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.
During a brilliant student career at the
Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious
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.
Returning to
Paris after almost three years in
Italy, he found that the main
Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others.
Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the
1860s, most of which were abandoned. Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—
Les pêcheurs de perles and
La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful.
After the
Franco-Prussian War of
1870–71, during which Bizet served in the
National Guard, 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. The production of Bizet's final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure; he died of a heart attack three months later, unaware that it would prove a spectacular and enduring success.
Bizet's marriage to
Geneviève Halévy was intermittently happy and produced one son. After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected. Manuscripts were given away or lost, and published versions of his works were frequently revised and adapted by other hands. He founded no school and had no obvious disciples or successors. 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.
Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He was registered as
Alexandre César Léopold, but baptised as "
Georges" on 16 March 1840, and was known by this name for the rest of his life. His father,
Adolphe Bizet, had been a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training. He also composed a few works, including at least one published song. In 1837 Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect; the Delsartes, though impoverished, were a cultured and highly musical family. Aimée was an accomplished pianist, while her brother
François Delsarte was a distinguished singer and teacher who performed at the courts of both
Louis Philippe and
Napoleon III. François Delsarte's wife Rosine, a musical prodigy, had been an assistant professor of solfège at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13.
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. By listening at the door of the room where Adolphe conducted his classes, Georges learned to sing difficult songs accurately from memory, and developed an ability to identify and analyse complex chordal structures. This precocity convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the
Conservatoire even though he was still only nine years old (the minimum entry age was 10). Georges was interviewed by
Joseph Meifred, the horn virtuoso who was a member of the Conservatoire's Committee of Studies. Meifred was so struck by the boy's demonstration of his skills that he waived the age rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available.
- published: 27 Jan 2015
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