Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet wrote Carmen, among the most performed operas in the world, and died at thirty-six believing it a failure. Born in Paris in 1838 to a singing teacher and a pianist, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire two weeks before his tenth birthday, an exception to the minimum age, and won its prizes routinely. His Symphony in C, written at seventeen as a student exercise, was not performed until 1935 and is now a repertory piece. He won the Prix de Rome in 1857 and spent three years in Italy. On his return he found the French operatic system almost impossible to work in: theatres wanted proven names, commissions were scarce, and he supported himself for years by arranging other composers' scores and giving lessons — work he described as drudgery that consumed the time he needed to compose. Les pêcheurs de perles in 1863 and La jolie fille de Perth in 1867 had mixed receptions. His incidental music for Daudet's play L'Arlésienne in 1872 failed with the play and survived as concert suites. Carmen opened at the Opéra-Comique on 3 March 1875. The house was a family theatre where audiences expected reconciliations, and the work gave them a cigarette-factory worker who takes lovers as she chooses and is stabbed to death on stage. Critics called it immoral and the music undistinguished; the run continued but the theatre struggled to sell seats. Bizet died of a heart attack on 3 June 1875, on the night of the thirty-third performance and his sixth wedding anniversary. Within a decade Carmen was playing across Europe. Nietzsche, Brahms and Tchaikovsky all admired it.

• Lived: 1838 CE – 1875 CE
• Nationality: French
• Roles: composer