Alexandre César Léopold Bizet was born in Paris, Oct. 25th, 1838. His
godfather called him “Georges,” and as “Georges,” Bizet is known to the
world at large.
The father of Bizet was an artisan, who, at the age of twenty-five,
studied music, and became a teacher of singing. He outlived his son. The
mother was a sister of the wife of Delsarte. She was a pianist of
ability, a “first prize” of the Conservatory. From her Bizet learned the
alphabet and musical notation. From his father he learned the use of the
pianoforte, and the elements of harmony.
The boy did not wish to be a musician; he hankered after the literary
life. “When I was a child,” Bizet told Gallet, “they hid my books to
keep me from abandoning music for literature.”
Although he was not of the required age, Bizet passed brilliantly, in
his tenth year, the entrance-examination of the Conservatory, where he
studied the pianoforte under Marmontel, the organ under Benoist,
counterpoint and fugue under Zimmermann; and after the death of the
latter, he studied composition under Halévy. He won a prize before he
was eleven years old, the first of many prizes:—
First solfeggio prize (1849); second pianoforte prize (1851), and the
first pianoforte prize (1852); first “accessit d’orgue” (1853), second
prize (1854), first prize (1855); second prize in fugue (1854), first
prize (1855); second “grand prix de Rome” of the Institute (1856), and
first “grand prix” (1857).
In 1856 Offenbach, manager of the Bouffes-Parisiens, proposed a
competition in operetta. The libretto was “Doctor Miracle.”
Seventy-eight composers appeared; six were found worthy, and the prizes
was awarded _ex aequo_, to Bizet and Lecocq. The music of the latter was
first heard April 8th, 1857; the music of Bizet was heard April 9th. The
public was impartially cold.
Toward the end of 1857 Bizet started on his journey to Rome. He
journeyed leisurely, and entered the city Jan. 28, 1858. It was in 1859
that he sent, according to rule, a composition to the “Académie des
Beaux-Arts”; it was not a mass however; it was an operetta in Italian:
“Don Procopio,” in two acts. The reviewer, Ambroise Thomas, praised the
ease, the brilliancy, “the fresh and bold style” of the composer, and he
deplored the fact that Bizet had not given his attention to a work of
religious character. The score of this operetta is lost. In 1859 Bizet
traveled in Italy and obtained permission to remain in Rome during the
one year, that, according to tradition, should be spent in Germany. He
sent to the Académie “Vasco de Gama,” a descriptive orchestral
composition with choruses; three numbers of an orchestral suite; and, if
Pougin is correct, an operetta in one act, “La Guzla de l’Emir”; but
Pigot claims that this latter work was not begun until after the return
to Paris.
He returned and found his mother on her deathbed. He was without means,
without employment; and he was crushed by the death of the one for whom
he was eager to work day and night. He once wrote to her from Rome,
“100,000 francs, the sum is nothing! Two successes at the Opéra Comique!
I wish to love you always with all my soul, and to be always as to-day
the most loving of sons.”
He was a “prix de Rome,”—too often an honor that brings with it no
substantial reward. He was a “prix de Rome,” as was the unfortunate
described by Legouvé:
“Listen to the wretched plight
Of a melancholy man,
A young man of sixty years,
Whom they call ‘un prix de Rome.’”
Burning with desire to write for the operatic stage, he gave music
lessons. Dreaming of dramatic situations and grand finales, he made
pianoforte arrangements of airs from operas written by others.
The Count Walewski granted Carvalho, the manager of the Théâtre-Lyrique,
a subsidy of 100,000 francs, on the condition that an important work by
a “prix de Rome” should be produced each year. Bizet was the first to
profit thereby. He wrote the music for “The Pearl Fishers.” The text was
by Carré and Cormon, and the opera was produced with gorgeous scenic
setting, Sept. 30, 1863. The opera was given eighteen times, and it was
not sung again in Paris until 1889, at the Gaité, and in Italian, with
Calvé and Talazac, when it was only heard six times.
It is stated in Pigot’s “Bizet et son Œuvre” that Blau and Gallet wrote
a libretto, “Ivan, the Terrible,” which was set to music by Bizet in the
style of Verdi. Gallet says that neither he nor Blau wrote a word of
such a libretto.
In 1866 Bizet worked at the orchestral composition which three years
later was played at a Concert Pasdeloup and was then called “Souvenirs
de Rome”; he temporarily abandoned it on the receipt of a libretto by
Saint-Georges and Adenis, founded on Sir Walter Scott’s “The Fair Maid
of Perth.” While he composed the music of this opera, he supported
himself by giving lessons, correcting proofs, arranging dance music for
orchestra, and writing songs. He often worked fifteen or sixteen hours a
day. His letters of this year end with one and the same cry: “I must
make my living.” This pursuit of a living brought early death.
The score of “The Fair Maid of Perth” was finished in six months, but
the opera was not produced at the Théâtre-Lyrique until the 26th of
December, 1867. There were twenty-one representations. In 1890 there
were eleven representations at the Eden Theatre (Théâtre-Lyrique).
It was in 1867 that Bizet wrote the first act of “Malbrough,” an
opérette bouffe, which was given at the Athénée. In 1868 or 1869 he
wrote the music of an opérette-vaudeville, “Sol-si-ré-pif-pan,” for the
Menus-Plaisirs, and he did not sign the score.
It was also in 1867 that he appeared as a writer on musical subjects.
His first and last article was published in the first number of the
Revue Nationale, Aug. 3rd. His pseudonym was “Gaston de Betzi.”
And then Bizet busied himself in the completion of “Noah,” a biblical
opera left unfinished by Halévy; in arranging operas for pianoforte
solo; in original compositions for the pianoforte, as his “chromatic
variations.” He wrote music for the text of “The Cup of the King of
Thule”; he called it “wretched stuff” and destroyed it. His “Souvenir de
Rome, fantaisie symphonique” was played at a Concert Populaire in 1869.
In that same year, June 3rd, he was married to Geneviève Halévy, the
daughter of the composer. After the invasion of France, Bizet served in
the National Guard, and his letters during those bloody days reveal the
depth of his patriotism and his disgust at the incompetence and
corruption in high places.
In 1872 (May 22) a little work in one act was brought out at the Opéra
Comique. It was called “Djamileh”; the text was by Gallet, the music was
by Bizet. It was given ten or eleven times; and Saint-Saëns, infuriated
at the Parisian public, wrote biting verses:
“The ruminating bourgeois, pot-bellied and ugly, sits in his narrow
stall, regretting separation from his kind; he half-opens a glassy eye,
munches a bon-bon, then sleeps again, thinking that the orchestra is
a-tuning.”
Carvalho, manager of the Vaudeville, dreamed of reviving the melodrama.
He first caught his playwright, Daudet; he secured Bizet as the
musician; the result was “L’Arlésienne,” which was first produced Oct.
1, 1872. The music included twenty-four numbers, orchestral and choral.
The score was designed for the particular orchestra of the Vaudeville.
Bizet rearranged for full orchestra the numbers that make up the Suite
No. 1, and the Suite was first played at a Concert Populaire Nov. 10,
1872. He also revised the other numbers, and the revision was used at
the revivals at the Odéon in 1885 and 1887. The Suite No. 2 was arranged
by Ernest Guiraud.
The overture, “Patrie,” was first played at a Concert Populaire in
February, 1874. Bizet experimented with texts suggested for an opéra
comique; he finally chose “Carmen,” the text of which was drawn by
Meilhac and Halévy from a tale by Merimée. The opera was produced at the
Opéra Comique, March 3, 1875, with the following cast: Carmen,
Galli-Marié; Micaëla, Marguerite Chapuis; Don Jose, Lhérie; Escamillo,
Bouhy. It was about this time that Bizet was decorated with the red
ribbon of the Legion of Honor.
“Carmen” was no more successful than its predecessors. Bizet mourned its
failure. For some time he had fought bravely against melancholy. At the
age of thirty-six, he exclaimed, “It is extraordinary that I should feel
so old.” Attacks of angina had been periodical for some years. He would
jest at his suffering: “Fancy a double-pedal, A flat, E flat, which goes
through your head from ear to ear.” He had abused his strength by
over-work. Suddenly, at midnight, he died in Bougival, where he was
resting. It was June 3rd, three months after the first performance of
“Carmen.” The widow was left with a five-year-old son.
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