Georges Bizet

[Herman]

Re: Symphony in C, one should really give the Balanchine ballet a shot, it's one of his most famous choreographies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn1ZVGp0plc

this 1973 video may look a little rusty, but it does have Allegra Kent and other big Balanchine era stars.

Re: Bizet's widow Génévieve, yes, she was a model for Mme Guermantes in Proust, but really it's hard to think of someone with a more grief-stricken life than Génévieve Halévy. Pretty much everybody she ever talked to died.

[kyjo]

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity of playing in the orchestra for a production of Carmen. Prior to performing it, I had somehow never listened to anything from this opera besides the orchestral extracts that form the two suites. Well, turns out I was missing out on an absolutely stupendous masterpiece - dare I say one of the most consistently inspired pieces of music I've heard in any medium? There's certainly a reason why this is one of the most popular operas of all time! Bizet's awe-inspiring melodic inspiration is second to none, and there's barely a single dull moment in the entire opera. Of course, there's that delightful Spanish influence that permeates the score, but just as important is how quintessentially French the musical language is. One can certainly detect Bizet's influence on later composers like Saint-Saens in his use of fresh, colorful, often unpredictable harmonies. And, most importantly, the work so successfully covers the entire emotional gamut, from humor to romance to swaggering bravura to tragedy and everything in between. After spending several weeks getting to know this work, I can firmly say that Bizet's premature death at 37 was absolutely one of the greatest losses to music along with the early deaths of Mozart, Schubert, L. Boulanger, and Gershwin. Considering that he wrote Carmen just before his death, I can only imagine what masterpieces he could've given us had he lived a few more decades! But we must be thankful for what we have, and I am certainly thankful that I had the experience of performing this incredible piece!

P.S. Come on guys, poor Bizet deserves more than a 1.5 page thread...

[Florestan]

Carmen is perhaps the only instance in which the libretto is better than its literary inspiration. In Merimee's novella Carmen is married. Imagine that!

Tchaikovsky praised Bizet's music (and French music in general) to the skies, considering it much fresher, more original and interesting than that of his German contemporaries. Nietzsche concurred. I concur too. 

[Lisztianwagner]

Both Wagner and Brahms praised Carmen too after attending its premiere in Vienna. As a matter of fact, it is very though not to appreciate such a stunning opera.