Georges Alexandre César Léopold Bizet (1838 - 1875)
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 ou...(+)
Georges Alexandre César Léopold Bizet (1838 - 1875)
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 1870–1871, 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.
Bizet wrote xx in 1871 as a celebration of Spring. The
lyrics (translated to English) read: Get up! Get up!
Spring has just been born! Over those valleys a rosy
mist is floating! Everything in the garden trembles and
sings; your window is full of sunshine, like a joyful
gaze. Around the bunches of purple-flowering lilac
butterflies and bees flutter and hum together, and the
little shaking bells of lily-of-the-valley have woken
up Eros who was sleeping in the woods. Now that April
has scattered its white daisies, go without your heavy
cloak and cold-weather muff! The birds are already
calling you, and the periwinkles (your sisters) will
smile in the grass when they see your blue eyes. Let's
get going! The stream is clearer in early morning. Get
up! Let's not wait for the day's burning heat. I want
to wet my feet in the moist dew and talk to you of love
under the blossoming pear-trees.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bizet)
Although originally composed for accompanied voice, I
created this Interpretation of the "Chanson d'avril"
(Song of April) from "20 Mélodies" (No. 1) for Flute &
Concert (Pedal) Harp.
