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BIZET EALEXANDRE CESAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 17 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BIZET EALEXANDRE CESAR See also:

LEOPOLD] GEORGES (1838-1875), See also:French musical composer, was See also:born at Bougival, near See also:Paris, on the 25th of See also:October 1838, the son of a singing-See also:master. He displayed musical ability at an See also:early -See also:age, and was sent to the Paris See also:Conservatoire, where he studied under See also:Halevy and speedily distinguished himself, carrying off prizes for See also:organ and See also:fugue, and finally in 1857, after an ineffectual See also:attempt in the previous See also:year, the See also:Grand Prix de See also:Rome for a See also:cantata called Cloris et Clotilde. A success of a different See also:kind also befell him at this See also:time. See also:Offenbach, then manager of the See also:Theatre See also:des Bouffes-Parisiens, had organized a competition for an operetta, in which See also:young Bizet was awarded the first See also:prize in See also:conjunction with See also:Charles. See also:Lecocq, each of them See also:writing an operetta called Doc/cur See also:Miracle. After the three years spent in Rome, an See also:obligation imposed by the French See also:government on the winners of the first prize at the Conservatoire, Bizet returned to Paris, where he achieved a reputation as a pianist and accompanist. On the 23rd of See also:September 1863 his first See also:opera, See also:Les Pecheurs de perks, was brought out at the Theatre Lyrique, but owing possibly to the' somewhat uninteresting nature of the See also:story, the opera did not enjoy a very See also:long run. The qualities displayed by the composer, however, were amply recognized, although, the See also:music was stated, by some critics, to exhibit traces of Wagnerian See also:influence. Wagnerism at that See also:period was a sort of spectre that haunted the See also:imagination of many leading members of the musical See also:press. It sufficed for a See also:work to be at all out of the See also:common for the epithet " Wagnerian" to be applied to it. The See also:term, it may be said, was intended to be condemnatory, and it was applied with little understanding as to its real meaning. The See also:score of the Pecheurs de perks contains several charming See also:numbers; its dreamy melodies are well adapted to See also:fit a story laid in Eastern climes, and the music reveals a decided dramatic temperament.

Some of its dances are now usually introduced into the See also:

fourth See also:act of . Carmen. On the 3rd of See also:June 1865 Bizet married a daughter of his old. master, Halevy. His ; second opera, La Jolie Fille de See also:Perth, produced at the TheatreLyrique on 26th See also:December 1867, was scarcely a step in advance. The libretto was founded on See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott's novel, but the opera lacks unity of See also:style, and its pages are marred by concessions to the vocalist. One number has survived, the characteristic Bohemian See also:dance which has been interpolated into the fourth act of Carmen. In his third opera Bizet returned to an See also:oriental subject. Djamileh, a one-act opera. given at the Opera Comique on the 22nd of May 1872, is certainly one of his most individual efforts. Again were accusations of Wagnerism hurled at the composer's See also:head, and Djamileh did not achieve the success it undoubtedly deserved. The composer was more fortunate with the incidental music he wrote to See also:Alphonse See also:Daudet's See also:drama, L'Arlesienne, produced in October 1872. Different numbers from this, arranged in the See also:form of suites, have often been heard in the See also:concert-See also:room. Rarely have See also:poetry and imagination been so well allied as in these exquisite pages, which seem to reflect the sunny skies of See also:Provence.

Bizet's masterpiece, Carmen, was brought out at the Opera Comique on the 3rd of See also:

March 187 5. It was based on a version by See also:Meilhac and Halevy of a study by Prosper Merimee—in which the dramatic See also:element was obscured by much descriptive writing. The detection of the drama underlying this psychological narrative was in itself a brilliant See also:discovery, and in reconstructing the story in dramatic form the authors produced one of the most famous libretti in the whole range of opera. Still more striking, than the libretto was the music composed by Bizet, in which the See also:peculiar use of the See also:flute and of the lowest notes of the See also:harp deserves particular See also:attention. On the 3rd of June; three months after the See also:production of Carmen in Paris, the genial composer expired after a few See also:hours' illness from a See also:heart See also:affection. Before dying he had the See also:satisfaction of knowing that Carmen had been accepted for production at See also:Vienna. After the See also:Austrian See also:capital came See also:Brussels, See also:Berlin and, in 1878, See also:London, when Carmen was brought out at Her See also:Majesty's theatre with immense success. The influence exercised by Bizet on dramatic music has been very See also:great, and may be discerned in the realistic See also:works of the young See also:Italian school, as well as in those of his own countrymen.

End of Article: BIZET EALEXANDRE CESAR

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