COMPOSER
Opera San José
Carmen Press Kit
Georges Bizet
(1838-1875)
Georges Bizet, 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 pop-
ular 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 cap-
italise 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 aban-
doned. 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 March 3, 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 com-
poser of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical
theatre.