After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected. 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.īizet’s marriage to Geneviève Halévy was intermittently happy and produced one son. The production of Bizet’s final opera Carmen was delayed through fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. Neither of the two operas that reached the stage-”Les pêcheurs de perles” and “La jolie fille de Perth”-was immediately successful.Īfter the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 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. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned. 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. 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. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, “Carmen”, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.ĭuring a brilliant student career at the Paris Conservatoire, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, (25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer, mainly of operas.
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