| In a letter dated October 1866, French composer | | | | It is a mystery how the young Bizet could consider |
| George Bizet (1838 - 1875) went straight to the point | | | | Carmen a flop. From the start he had been paid the |
| of opera: "As a musician I tell you that if you were to | | | | considerable sum of 25,000 francs, and been awarded |
| suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the | | | | the Chevalier of the legion d'honneur. His risque opera |
| supernatural, there would no longer be the means for | | | | received an impressive 37 performances. Had he lived |
| writing one note." | | | | just another three months he would have seen |
| The opera prodigy and gifted pianist sprinkled far more | | | | Carmen triumph and within three years it was playing |
| of the human experience into his much loved opera, | | | | to packed houses throughout the world. "Ah music!" he |
| Carmen. It is arguably still the world's most popular | | | | is quoted as saying: "What a beautiful art but what a |
| opera one hundred and thirty-five years after his death | | | | wretched profession." |
| from a heart attack at just thirty-six years of age. As | | | | Bizet was hardly a one opera wonder though it cannot |
| a staged spectacular it was an opera that pioneered | | | | be denied that Carmen was more of a success than |
| the grittiness of real life characters and events. From | | | | his lesser known opera, The Pearl Fishers. Its |
| Carmen flowed a new genre of opera which set the | | | | celebrated duet Les Pecheurs de Perles (In the Depths |
| scene for Mascagni's Cavallaria Rusticana, | | | | of the Temple) has on a number of occasions been |
| Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Puccini's La Boheme. Fly | | | | voted by radio listeners as their all time favourite piece |
| on the wall stuff, it was the forerunner to today's | | | | of classical music. For sheer musical whimsy Bizet's |
| television soap operas. This is real life warts and all. | | | | music set to the Alphonse Daudet's play L'arlesienne |
| Questionable Morality | | | | takes some beating. |
| Carmen is the story of a beautiful coquettish factory | | | | Better than Mozart |
| worker of questionable morality. By feminine guile she | | | | This self effacing composer joined the echelon of |
| uses, abuses and seduces her way through a rich | | | | history's greatest composers from quite an early age. |
| tapestry of gypsies, thieves, soldiers and smugglers. | | | | Before reaching his eighteenth birthday he had |
| Her flirtatiousness finally brings the seductress to a | | | | composed his first symphony, which is said to rival |
| sticky end at the point of a dagger wielded by her | | | | anything composed by Mozart or Mendelssohn when |
| jealous lover: The finale of this nail-biting drama takes | | | | they were still teenagers. He had also won a |
| place outside the arena as her bullfighter lover triumphs | | | | competition sponsored by the theatre impresario |
| over his bovine adversary. | | | | Jacques Offenbach, and later awarded the coveted |
| George Bizet was a handsome bearded man not | | | | Prix de Rome. Gustav Mahler, one of the greatest |
| unlike his contemporary Peter Tchaikovsky. This | | | | orchestral composers of all time considered George |
| French composer of Spain's most celebrated musical | | | | Bizet's Djamileh a masterpiece. |
| masterpiece delighted in his own compositions but was | | | | Such was the man who on his death bed considered |
| bemused when they never won hearts and minds. He | | | | himself to be a failure. At the last count there have |
| for his part failed to fully appreciate Carmen, which did | | | | been fourteen screen versions of Carmen not to |
| earn considerable acclaim and made him a household | | | | mention the famous Hammerstein stage adaptation |
| name throughout the world. | | | | Carmen Jones (1945). One can only wonder what this |
| A Wretched Profession | | | | remarkable composer might consider success. |