George Bizet. Pages of life and creativity

... I need a theater: without it I am nothing.
J. Bizet

The French composer J. Bizet devoted his short life to musical theater. The pinnacle of his work - Carmen - is still one of the most beloved operas for many, many people.

Bizet grew up in a culturally educated family; father was a singing teacher, mother played the piano. From the age of 4, Georges began to study music under the guidance of his mother. At the age of 10 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. The most prominent musicians of France became his teachers: pianist A. Marmontel, theorist P. Zimmerman, opera composers F. Halévy and Ch. Gounod. Even then, Bizet's versatile talent was revealed: he was a brilliant virtuoso pianist (F. Liszt himself admired his playing), repeatedly received prizes in theoretical disciplines, was fond of playing the organ (later, already gaining fame, he studied with S. Frank).

In the Conservatory years (1848-58), works appear full of youthful freshness and ease, among which are the Symphony in C major, the comic opera The Doctor's House. The end of the conservatory was marked by the receipt of the Rome Prize for the cantata "Clovis and Clotilde", which gave the right to a four-year stay in Italy and a state scholarship. At the same time, for the competition announced by J. Offenbach, Bizet wrote the operetta Doctor Miracle, which was also awarded a prize.

In Italy, Bizet, fascinated by the fertile southern nature, monuments of architecture and painting, worked a lot and fruitfully (1858-60). He studies art, reads many books, comprehends beauty in all its manifestations. The ideal for Bizet is the beautiful, harmonious world of Mozart and Raphael. Truly French grace, generous melodic gift, delicate taste have forever become integral features of the composer's style. Bizet is increasingly attracted to operatic music, capable of "merging" with the phenomenon or hero depicted on stage. Instead of the cantata, which the composer was supposed to present in Paris, he writes the comic opera Don Procopio, in the tradition of G. Rossini. An ode-symphony "Vasco da Gama" is also being created.

With the return to Paris, the beginning of serious creative searches and at the same time hard, routine work for the sake of a piece of bread is connected. Bizet has to make transcriptions of other people's opera scores, write entertaining music for cafe-concerts and at the same time create new works, working 16 hours a day. “I work as a black man, I am exhausted, I literally break into pieces ... I just finished romances for the new publisher. I'm afraid that it turned out mediocre, but money is needed. Money, always money - to hell! Following Gounod, Bizet turns to the genre of lyric opera. His "Pearl Seekers" (1863), where the natural expression of feelings is combined with oriental exoticism, aroused the praise of G. Berlioz. The Beauty of Perth (1867, based on a plot by W. Scott) depicts the life of ordinary people. The success of these operas was not so great as to strengthen the position of the author. Self-criticism, a sober awareness of the shortcomings of the "Perth Beauty" became the key to Bizet's future achievements: "This is a spectacular play, but the characters are poorly outlined ... The school of beaten roulades and lies is dead - dead forever! We will bury her without regret, without excitement - and forward!” A number of plans of those years remained unfulfilled; the completed, but generally unsuccessful opera Ivan the Terrible was not staged. In addition to operas, Bizet writes orchestral and chamber music: he completes the Rome symphony, begun back in Italy, writes pieces for piano in 4 hands "Children's Games" (some of them in the orchestral version were "Little Suite"), romances.

In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, when France was in a critical situation, Bizet joined the National Guard. A few years later, his patriotic feelings found expression in the dramatic overture "Motherland" (1874). 70s - the flourishing of the composer's work. In 1872, the premiere of the opera "Jamile" (based on the poem by A. Musset) took place, subtly translating; intonations of Arabic folk music. For visitors to the Opera-Comique, it was a surprise to see a work that tells about selfless love, full of pure lyrics. Genuine connoisseurs of music and serious critics saw in Jamil the beginning of a new stage, the opening of new paths.

In the works of these years, the purity and elegance of style (always inherent in Bizet) by no means prevent a truthful, uncompromising expression of the drama of life, its conflicts and tragic contradictions. Now the idols of the composer are W. Shakespeare, Michelangelo, L. Beethoven. In his article “Conversations on Music”, Bizet welcomes “a passionate, violent, sometimes even unbridled temperament, like Verdi, which gives art a living, powerful work, created from gold, dirt, bile and blood. I change my skin both as an artist and as a person, ”says Bizet about himself.

One of the pinnacles of Bizet's work is the music for A. Daudet's drama The Arlesian (1872). The staging of the play was unsuccessful, and the composer compiled an orchestral suite from the best numbers (the second suite after Bizet's death was composed by his friend, composer E. Guiraud). As in previous works, Bizet gives the music a special, specific flavor of the scene. Here it is Provence, and the composer uses folk Provencal melodies, saturates the whole work with the spirit of old French lyrics. The orchestra sounds colorful, light and transparent, Bizet achieves an amazing variety of effects: these are the ringing of bells, the brilliance of colors in the picture of the national holiday (“Farandole”), the refined chamber sound of the flute with harp (in the minuet from the Second Suite) and the sad “singing” of the saxophone (Bizet was the first to introduce this instrument into the symphony orchestra).

Bizet's last works were the unfinished opera Don Rodrigo (based on Corneille's drama The Cid) and Carmen, which placed its author among the world's greatest artists. The premiere of Carmen (1875) was also Bizet's biggest failure in life: the opera failed with a scandal and caused a sharp press assessment. After 3 months, on June 3, 1875, the composer died on the outskirts of Paris, Bougival.

Despite the fact that Carmen was staged at the Comic Opera, it corresponds to this genre only with some formal features. In essence, this is a musical drama that exposed the real contradictions of life. Bizet used the plot of P. Merimee's short story, but elevated his images to the value of poetic symbols. And at the same time, all of them are “live” people with bright, unique characters. The composer brings folk scenes into action with their elemental manifestation of vitality, overflowing with energy. Gypsy beauty Carmen, bullfighter Escamillo, smugglers are perceived as part of this free element. Creating a "portrait" of the main character, Bizet uses the melodies and rhythms of habanera, seguidilla, polo, etc.; at the same time, he managed to penetrate deeply into the spirit of Spanish music. Jose and his bride Michaela belong to a completely different world - cozy, remote from storms. Their duet is designed in pastel colors, soft romance intonations. But Jose is literally "infected" with Carmen's passion, her strength and uncompromisingness. The "ordinary" love drama rises to the tragedy of the clash of human characters, the strength of which surpasses the fear of death and defeats it. Bizet sings of the beauty, the greatness of love, the intoxicating feeling of freedom; without preconceived moralizing, he truthfully reveals the light, the joy of life and its tragedy. This again reveals a deep spiritual kinship with the author of Don Juan, the great Mozart.

Already a year after the unsuccessful premiere, Carmen is staged with triumph on the largest stages in Europe. For the production at the Grand Opera in Paris, E. Giro replaced conversational dialogues with recitatives, introduced a number of dances (from other works by Bizet) into the last action. In this edition, the opera is known to today's listener. In 1878, P. Tchaikovsky wrote that “Carmen is in the full sense a masterpiece, that is, one of those few things that are destined to reflect the musical aspirations of an entire era to the strongest degree ... I am convinced that in years to come ten "Carmen" will be the most popular opera in the world ... "

K. Zenkin

The best progressive traditions of French culture found expression in Bizet's work. This is the high point of realistic aspirations in French music of the 19th century. In the works of Bizet, those features that Romain Rolland defined as typical national features of one of the sides of the French genius were vividly captured: "... heroic efficiency, intoxication with reason, laughter, passion for light." Such, according to the writer, is "the France of Rabelais, Molière and Diderot, and in music ... the France of Berlioz and Bizet."

Bizet's short life was filled with vigorous, intense creative work. It didn't take long for him to find himself. But extraordinary personality The artist's personality manifested itself in everything he did, although at first his ideological and artistic searches still lacked purposefulness. Over the years, Bizet became more and more interested in the life of the people. A bold appeal to the plots of everyday life helped him create images that were precisely snatched from the surrounding reality, enrich contemporary art with new themes and extremely truthful, powerful means in depicting healthy, full-blooded feelings in all their diversity.

The public upsurge at the turn of the 60-70s led to an ideological turning point in Bizet's work, directed him to the heights of mastery. "Content, content first!" he exclaimed during those years in one of his letters. He is attracted in art by the scope of thought, the breadth of the concept, the truthfulness of life. In his only article, published in 1867, Bizet wrote: “I hate pedantry and false erudition... Hookwork instead of creating. There are fewer and fewer composers, but parties and sects are multiplying ad infinitum. Art is impoverished to complete poverty, but technology is enriched by verbosity... Let's be direct, truthful: let's not demand from the great artist those feelings that he lacks, and use those that he possesses. When a passionate, exuberant, even rude temperament, like Verdi, gives art a work of life and strength, molded of gold, mud, bile and blood, we do not dare to say to him coldly: “But, sir, this is not exquisite.” - Exquisite? .. Is it Michelangelo, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rabelais exquisite?..».

This breadth of views, but at the same time adherence to principles, allowed Bizet to love and respect a lot in the art of music. Along with Verdi, Mozart, Rossini, Schumann should be named among the composers appreciated by Bizet. He knew far from all of Wagner's operas (the works of the post-Lohengrin period were not yet known in France), but he admired his genius. “The charm of his music is incredible, incomprehensible. This is voluptuousness, pleasure, tenderness, love! .. This is not the music of the future, because such words do not mean anything - but this is ... music of all times, since it is beautiful ”(from a letter of 1871). With a feeling of deep respect, Bizet treated Berlioz, but he loved Gounod more and spoke with cordial benevolence about the successes of his contemporaries - Saint-Saens, Massenet and others.

But above all, he put Beethoven, whom he idolized, calling the titan, Prometheus; “... in his music,” he said, “the will is always strong.” It was the will to live, to action that Bizet sang in his works, demanding that feelings be expressed by "strong means." An enemy of vagueness, pretentiousness in art, he wrote: "the beautiful is the unity of content and form." “There is no style without form,” Bizet said. From his students, he demanded that everything be "strongly done." "Try to keep your style more melodic, modulations more defined and distinct." “Be musical,” he added, “write beautiful music above all.” Such beauty and distinctness, impulse, energy, strength and clarity of expression are inherent in Bizet's creations.

His main creative achievements are connected with the theater, for which he wrote five works (in addition, a number of works were not completed or, for one reason or another, were not staged). The attraction to theatrical and stage expressiveness, which is generally characteristic of French music, is very characteristic of Bizet. Once he told Saint-Saens: "I was not born for the symphony, I need the theater: without it I am nothing." Bizet was right: it was not instrumental compositions that brought him world fame, although their artistic merits are undeniable, but his latest works are music for the drama "Arlesian" and the opera "Carmen". In these works, the genius of Bizet was fully revealed, his wise, clear and truthful skill in showing the great drama of people from the people, colorful pictures of life, its light and shadow sides. But the main thing is that he immortalized with his music an inexorable will to happiness, an effective attitude to life.

How else can you characterize the composer, whom P.I. Tchaikovsky called genius, and his work - the opera "Carmen" - a real masterpiece, saturated with genuine feeling and real inspiration. Georges Bizet is an outstanding French composer who worked in the era of romanticism. His entire creative path was thorny, and life is a continuous obstacle course. However, despite all the difficulties and thanks to his extraordinary talent, the great Frenchman presented the world with a unique work that became one of the most popular in its genre and glorified the composer for all time.

Read a brief biography of Georges Bizet and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Bizet

On October 25, 1838, in Paris, on the Tour d'Auvergne street, in the family of the singing teacher Adolf-Aman Bizet and his wife Aime, a boy was born, whom his loving parents named after the three great emperors: Alexander Cesar Leopold. However, at baptism he received a simple the French name Georges, which remained with him forever.

Already from the first days of life, the child listened to a lot of music - these were tender lullabies of the mother, as well as educational vocalizations of the father's students. When the baby was four years old, Eme began to teach him musical notation, and at the age of five she sat her son at the piano. Bizet's biography says that at the age of six, Georges was assigned to a school where an inquisitive child became very addicted to reading, and, according to his mother, it distracted the boy from music lessons, for which the boy had to sit for hours.

The phenomenal musical abilities that Georges possessed and hard work paid off. After listening, which caused surprised delight among the professors of the Paris Conservatory, the nine-year-old child was enrolled as a volunteer in a prestigious educational institution in the class of the famous A. Marmontel. Having a lively character, a curious and emotional student who grasped everything on the fly, the professor really liked it, working with him gave the teacher great pleasure. But the ten-year-old boy made progress not only in playing the piano. In the competition for solfeggio , demonstrating a phenomenal ear for music and memory, he earned the first prize and received free additional lessons in instrument and composition from the outstanding P. Zimmerman.

Georges's conservatory training as a performer was nearing its end, and the path of a concert musician opened before him, although this prospect of the young man was not at all interested. Since P. Zimmerman began to study composition with him, the young man had a new dream: to compose music for the theater. Therefore, after completing a piano course with A. Mormontel, Georges immediately entered the composition class of F. Halevi, under whose guidance he composed a lot and enthusiastically, trying himself in various musical genres. In addition, Bizet enthusiastically studied in the organ class of Professor F. Benois, where he achieved significant results, first winning the second, and then the first prize of the Conservatory in performance on the instrument.

In 1856, at the convincing insistence of F. Golevy, Georges takes part in the competition of the Academy of Fine Arts. The first, the so-called Rome Prize, gave the young talent an opportunity for two years of internship in the Italian and a year in the German capitals. At the end of this practice, the young author was given the right to premiere a one-act theatrical musical composition in one of the theaters in France. Unfortunately, this attempt was not entirely successful: no one was awarded the first prize this time. But luck accompanied the young composer in another creative competition, which was announced by Jacques Offenbach. For his theater, located on the Boulevard Montmartre, for publicity purposes, he announced a competition for the creation of a small comedy musical performance with a limited number of performers. The winner was promised a gold medal and a prize of one thousand two hundred francs. “Doctor Miracle” was the name of the operetta presented by the eighteen-year-old composer to the court of a respected jury. Commission decision: to divide the prize between two contestants, one of whom was Georges Bizet.

This victory not only introduced the name of the young composer to the French public, but also opened the doors for him to the famous Offenbach “Fridays”, where only selected creative personalities were invited, and where he was honored to be introduced to G. Rossini himself. Meanwhile, the next annual competition of the Academy of Arts for the Prize of Rome was approaching, for which Georges was intensively preparing, composing the cantata Clovis and Clotilde. This time a triumph - he won the first prize in musical composition and, together with the other five laureates, on December 21, 1857, went to the Eternal City to improve his skills.

Italy

In Italy, Georges traveled around the country, admiring the beautiful nature and works of fine art, read a lot, met interesting people. And Rome fell in love with him so much that he tried in every possible way to stay here, for which he even wrote a letter to the Minister of Education of France with a request to be allowed to spend the third year not in Germany, but in Italy, to which he received a positive response. This was a period of a difficult stage in the human and creative formation of the young composer, who Georges later called the happiest and most carefree in his life. For Bizet, these were wonderful years of creative search and first love. However, the young man still had to leave Rome two months ahead of schedule, as he received a letter from Paris with the news of the illness of his beloved mother. For this reason, at the end of September 1860, Bizet returned to Paris.

Homecoming

The hometown of the young man did not meet rosy. Georges's carefree youth was over, and now he needed to think about how to earn money for his daily bread. Gray everyday life began, which were filled with boring routine work for him. Bizet moonlighted as private lessons, and also, by order of the owner of the famous Parisian publishing house A. Shudan, he was engaged in arranging orchestral scores of works by famous composers for piano and composing entertaining music. Friends advised Georges to engage in performing activities, because even while studying at the conservatory, he was known as a virtuoso musician. However, the young man understood that a career as a pianist could bring him quick success, but at the same time, it would prevent him from fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming an opera composer.

Bizet had many problems: it was necessary to pass the ode-symphony "Vasca da Gama" - the next second report to the Academy of Arts and, in addition, he, as a laureate of Rome, had to write a funny one-act opera for the Opera-Comic theater. The libretto was provided to him, but the cheerful melodies for “Guzla Emir”, as the performance was called, were not born at all. Yes, and how could they appear when the most beloved person and best friend was in serious condition. September 8, 1861 George's mother died. One irreparable loss followed another. Six months later, not just a teacher, but Bizet's mentor and supporter, Fromenthal Halevi, passed away. Depressed by the loss of loved ones, Georges, in order to somehow distract himself, tried even more to go to work, but as a result he got nervous strain and a breakdown.

Throughout 1863, Bizet worked on a new opera, " pearl seekers", and in 1864 he helped his father in the construction of housing on a forest plot acquired by Adolf-Aman in Vezina. Now Georges has the opportunity to spend every summer in nature. Here, with great enthusiasm, he composed Ivan the Terrible, and in 1866, The Perth Beauty. In 1867, Bizet was offered a job as a music columnist for a Parisian magazine. He published an article under the pseudonym Gaston de Betsy, which was received really well, but, unfortunately, it was the first and last.

At the same time, significant changes were taking place in Georges' personal life: he fell passionately in love with the daughter of his late teacher F. Halevi. Genevieve's mother and close relatives were against such a union, considering the composer an unworthy party for a girl, but Bizet was quite persistent, and as a result, on June 3, 1869, the young people got married. Georges was unusually happy, he protected his young wife in every possible way, who was twelve years younger than him, and tried to please her in everything.

Dangerous Times

The following summer, the Bizet couple went to Barbizon for four months, a place very popular with people of art. The composer intends to work fruitfully here on "Clarice Harlow", "Calendale", "Griselda", but due to the Franco-Prussian war that began in July, Georges' plans failed to materialize. The government has announced a nationwide conscription for the National Guard. Bizet did not bypass this fate, he even underwent military training, but as a Roman Scholar he received an exemption from military service and left for Barbizon to pick up his wife and return to Paris, where the republic was again proclaimed on September 4. The situation in the capital became more complicated due to the siege of the Prussians: famine began in the city. Relatives offered Georges to move to Bordeaux for a while, but he stayed and, to the best of his ability, helped the defenders of Paris, patrolling in the city and on the ramparts.

Bizet and Genevieve left the city only after the surrender announced in January 1871 and the lifting of the blockade. First, they visited relatives in Bordeaux, then moved to Compiègne, and waited out the end of the troubled times of the Paris Commune in Wiesin. Returning to the capital in early June, Bizet immediately set to work on his new work, the opera Jamile, which premiered on May 22, 1872. And two and a half weeks later, a joyful event happened in the composer's life - Genevieve gave him a son. Inspired by such happiness, Georges went even deeper into his work and gladly accepted the offer to saturate A. Daudet's dramatic performance "The Arlesian" with good music. The premiere of the production, unfortunately, failed, but less than a month later Bizet's composition for the drama, which he transformed into a suite performed at one of the concerts, was a resounding success. Soon, Georges was again disappointed: at the end of October 1873, the composer was informed that the building of the Grand Opera House, where the premiere of his opera Sid was soon to take place, burned to the ground and all performances were transferred to the Ventadour Hall, which was not adapted for such a production. However, three months later, the name of Bizet was again on everyone's lips: the first, and then the subsequent performances of his dramatic overture "Fatherland" were held with great triumph.

The last work of the composer

The composer spent the entire year of 1874 working on a work that his friends advised him to do. From the very beginning, Bizet was embarrassed by many things: how an opera with a tragic ending can be staged on the stage of the Opera-Comic, and this is how P. Mérimée's short story "Carmen" ended. Some even suggested changing the ending, because the author of the work had been dead for more than three years. But the worst thing is how the audience will perceive the performance of people from the lower class on stage. Despite everything, the composer enthusiastically set about creating a work that would later become a masterpiece for all time. As soon as the long-awaited premiere was scheduled for March 3, 1875, rumors spread around the city about an impending theater scandal. The first act was warmly received, but after the second act, some of the audience left the hall. When the third act ended, Bizet, in response to miserable congratulations, publicly announced that it was a failure. The next day the Parisian newspapers announced " Carmen"scandalous" and "immoral", they wrote that Bizet had sunk very low, to the very social bottom.

The second performance took place a day later - on March 5, and was already received by the public not just warmly, but passionately, but the newspapers continued to discuss the failure of the premiere for another week. In that theatrical season, Carmen was staged thirty-seven times in Paris, and not every performance could withstand so many performances. Because of the failure of the premiere, Bizet suffered greatly, but moral torment caused by a quarrel with his wife, as well as physical torment due to chronic tonsillitis and rheumatism, were added to this. At the end of May 1875, Georges left Paris with his whole family and headed for Bougival in the hope that he would feel better in nature. However, the composer did not get better, the constant attacks finally exhausted him, and on June 3 the doctor declared the death of Georges Bizet.

Interesting facts about Georges Bizet

• The composer's father, Adolphe Aman Bizet, before meeting Anna Leopoldina Aimé, nee Delsar, Georges's mother, had the profession of a hairdresser, but before the wedding he changed his occupation, retraining as a singing teacher, thereby becoming a "man of art", as required by the bride's family .
• The boy Georges lived according to a strict schedule: in the morning he was taken to the conservatory, then after classes they brought him home, fed him and closed him in the room where he studied until he fell asleep from fatigue right behind the instrument.
• Little Bizet was so fond of reading from childhood that his parents had to hide books from him. At the age of nine, the boy dreamed of becoming a writer, considering it much more interesting than sitting at the piano all day.

• From the biography of Bizet, we learn that, despite his talent, the young child prodigy very often quarreled with his parents because of music lessons, he cried and got angry with them, but from childhood he realized that his abilities and mother's perseverance would give results that would help him in later life.
• Honored with a Rome scholarship, Georges Bizet not only traveled a lot, but also met different people. Often attending receptions at the French embassy, ​​he met there with an interesting person - Russian Ambassador Dmitry Nikolayevich Kiselyov. A strong friendship developed between a twenty-year-old youth and an almost sixty-year-old dignitary.
• Georges Bizet's uncle, François Delsarte, was once a well-known singing teacher in Paris, but he gained great fame as the inventor of a peculiar system of "staging the aesthetics of the human body", which later gained its followers. Some art historians believe that F. Delsarte is a person who largely predetermined the development of art in the 20th century. Even K.S. Stanislavsky recommended using his system for the initial training of actors.
• Bizet's contemporaries spoke of him as a sociable, cheerful and kind person. Always working hard and selflessly, he nevertheless loved to have fun with his friends, being the author of all kinds of mischievous ideas and funny jokes.

• While still studying at the conservatory, Georges Bizet was known as a skilled pianist. Once in the presence Franz Liszt he so masterfully performed the technically complex work of the composer that he delighted the author: after all, the young musician easily played puzzling passages at the right tempo.
• In 1874, Georges Bizet was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his significant contribution to the development of musical art.
• After the first failed premiere, A. Daudet's drama The Arlesian returned to the stage only ten years later. The play already enjoyed undoubted success with the audience, although contemporaries note the fact that the audience went to the performance more because of listening to the music of J. Bizet that adorned it.
• J. Bizet's opera "Ivan the Terrible" was never staged during the composer's lifetime. Contemporaries even said that the composer burned the score in anger, but the work was nevertheless discovered, but only at the end of the thirties of the last century in the archives of the conservatory and staged for the first time in a concert version in occupation Paris in 1943 at the theater on the Boulevard des Capucines. The organizers of the performance tried to ensure that there was not a single German among the audience, since an opera written in a Russian plot could cause them great irritation, especially since the turning point in World War II not in favor of Germany had already occurred. G. Bizet's opera "Ivan the Terrible" has never been staged in Russia, since many historical facts are greatly distorted in it.

• Immediately after the death of J. Bizet, all the composer's manuscripts listed in the will were transferred to the library of the Paris Conservatory. However, many more of his papers and manuscripts were discovered by the executor of Emil Strauss (the second husband of the widow J. Bizet), Mr. R. Sibyla, who, having determined the value of these documents, also immediately sent them to the conservatory archives. Therefore, descendants got acquainted with many works of the composer only in the 20th century.
• Georges Bizet had two sons. The elder Jean appeared from a casual relationship with the servant of the Bizet family, Maria Reiter. The second son - Jacques was born in a marriage with Genevieve, nee Golevy.

Talented child

On October 25, 1838, the future world-famous composer Georges Bizet was born in Paris.

He grew up in a musical family (his father taught vocals, his mother was a professional pianist), so Georges was surrounded by music from early childhood.

His parents were his first teachers. By the age of four, the child already knew musical notation well, played the piano. Parents persistently engaged in the boy's musical education, leaving him no time to play with peers.

His successes were so significant that even before reaching the age of ten, Bizet entered the Moscow Conservatory. The first musical compositions appeared in the young talent at the age of 13. In the morning, my mother took Georges to the conservatory, and after school she took her home.

A short break for lunch - and again music lessons in a separate room, where it was closed and where the boy played the piano to the point of complete exhaustion.

However, studying was not particularly difficult for Georges. After graduating from the conservatory at the age of 19, he wrote the cantata Clovis and Clotilde, for which he received the Grand Prize of Rome. At such a young age, by the way, no one has ever received such an award.

First love and first troubles

In Italy, Georges met a cheerful girl Giuseppa, fell in love with her to the point of intoxication. He thought that by writing a couple of comic operas, he would earn enough to provide a comfortable life with his beloved. But then the news came that his mother was ill.

Georges, leaving home, promised the girl to return when her mother recovered. For her treatment, the young composer struggled to earn money: he rearranged the scores of operas by other composers for the piano, for which he was regularly paid. But the money was still not enough.

The sick mother, who so dreamed of seeing her Georges rich and famous, tirelessly repeated that he must write a symphony that would glorify him and lead him out of poverty. He wrote, the pile of drafts grew, but there was less and less time left, and the debts kept growing. The mother faded away. A whole year of hard work to save the mother did not bring the expected result. Mother died without seeing her son famous.

Passion for theater

Musical theater has long attracted Bizet. He wrote a lot for the stage. But criticism did not particularly favor the young composer. He wrote the comic opera Don Procopio, several orchestral pieces, but all this was not appreciated. Finally, in 1863, there was a shift: the premiere of Bizet's opera "Pearl Divers" was noticed by critics, but without much enthusiasm.

Only 18 times the opera was staged, and then it was excluded from the repertoire. And again everything returned to normal: hard and unsuccessful work on sleepless nights, other people's scores, miserable music lessons.

Lack of money and despair. Opera diva - Mogador

Acquaintance with the opera singer Mogador gave Georges Bizet a violent passion that did not bring happiness or even career advancement. She was a celebrity in Paris. She was known not only as the opera diva Madame Lionel, but also as the writer Celeste Venard and as the socialite Countess de Chabriyan.

She was a lovely 42-year-old widow and owner of the capital's musical theater. 28-year-old Bizet was consumed by their mutual passion. But it was this woman who brought a lot of mental anguish to Georges: she turned out to be capricious and absurd, constantly making scandals and terrible scenes. And she no longer needed the love of a young man.

Once, in a fit of anger, Mogador poured a tub of ice water on Georges. The young man went outside. It was winter. He caught a cold. He fell ill for a long time and seriously: he worked in bed, practically lost his voice. His connection with Mogador ended, but mental suffering, as well as physical, poisoned his life for a long time.

Marriage

In the spring of 1869, at his teacher's house, Georges met his grown-up daughter Genevieve. Their romance developed slowly. Failure with the opera The Beauty of Perth (1866). Illness, loss of self-confidence, lack of money - all this devastated the composer's soul. But still, one day Georges decided to propose to Genevieve.

At first, the young wife surrounded Bizet with love and care, creating comfortable working conditions for him. Georges worked tirelessly: he composed music and still gave lessons. Genevieve soon grew tired of this life. One day, her husband found her at home with her lover.

Opera "Carmen" (1874)

The swan song of Georges Bizet was the opera Carmen, where the heroine is so similar to the passionate Mogador. At the premiere in the hall of the Paris Opera, Bizet was frozen with horror: is it really a shameful failure this time? The public reacted sluggishly. Georges realized that no one appreciated his masterpiece again.

Genevieve left the theater after the first act. Crushed by yet another failure, the composer threw himself into the Seine in a fit of desperation. This time his illness turned out to be fatal: fever, deafness, paralysis of the arms and legs, a heart attack - and death on 3.06. 1875. He was only 37 years old.

He was not destined to see himself and his "Carmen" in the rays of enchanting success, which came 4 months after his death at the Vienna Opera. All the once unrecognized works of Georges Bizet, and first of all his "Carmen", are forever among the most brilliant creations of musical classics.

Alexandre Cesar Leopold Bizet (1838-1875) - French composer, his work belongs to the period of romanticism, wrote pieces for piano, romances, works for orchestras and opera. He won worldwide fame thanks to his most famous opera, Carmen.

Childhood

October 25, 1838 in the family of a Parisian, a singing teacher, a son was born, who was given the name Alexander Cesar Leopold Bizet. At his baptism, he was named Georges, under which name he gained further fame.

The family where the boy was born was musical. In addition to the fact that dad taught singing at school, mom was also related to music, she played the piano professionally. Georges' maternal uncle was also a singing teacher.

Little Georges loved to make music with his parents. But at the same time, he, the child, so wanted to run outside and play with the children. However, the parents decided differently, they did not welcome street entertainment, so at the age of four Georges was already well versed in the notes and played the piano.

Conservatory

The boy was not yet ten years old, as he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory. His parents decided to send him there to study, as his musical talent was clearly visible. The childhood of Georges Bizet, which practically did not begin, ended.

In the mornings, Georges was taken to the conservatory by his mother. After studying, she was waiting for him, and then every day the same scenario was repeated: they fed him at home, closed him in a room where he was supposed to play the piano. And the boy played the instrument until he fell asleep for him from fatigue.

Young Georges tried to resist his mother, he liked literature so much that he wanted to constantly study it and read many books. But as soon as his mother caught him with another book in his hands, she monotonously repeated: “It was not in vain that you grew up in a musical family, you will become a musician, not a writer. And outstanding!”

In his studies, Georges did not experience difficulties, he grasped everything literally on the fly. During his studies, he proved to be a brilliant student in the piano class of the teacher A. F. Marmontel, in the composition class of the teachers Ch. Gounod, P. Zimmerman, J. F. F. Halevi.

Bizet studied at the Conservatory for nine years and successfully graduated in 1857. During the years of study, the young man began to try himself as a composer, he created many musical works, among them there is one symphony that Georges wrote at the age of seventeen, which is still successfully performed by musicians all over the world.

In the last year of his studies, Georges participated in a competition in which it was necessary to write an operetta for one act, he composed a cantata for a legendary ancient plot and received a prize. Bizet also received several awards during his studies for playing the piano and organ.

In his last graduation year, Georges wrote the operetta Doctor Miracle. And when he graduated from the Paris Conservatory, he received his most valuable award, the Prix de Rome, for the cantata Clovis and Clotilde. She gave Bizet great opportunities - to live in Italy for four years and receive a state scholarship.

Italy

In 1857, after graduating from the conservatory, Bizet went to Italy, where he lived until 1860. He studied local life, traveled, admired the beauty of nature and fine arts, and also devoted a lot of time to his education.

For a long time, Georges could not decide on the future path of life, he could not find his own theme in music. Over time, Bizet decided to connect his future work with the theater. He was very interested in opera premieres and musical theaters in Paris. To some extent, it was mercantile, because then in the theatrical musical world it was the easiest thing to achieve success.

The years spent in Italy, Georges then considered the most carefree in his life. He composed little by little, during which time he wrote several pieces for orchestras (they later became part of the symphonic suite Memories of Rome) and the symphony-cantata Vasco da Gama.

But the time for receiving the Italian state scholarship came to an end, Georges had to return to Paris.

Return to Paris

Upon arrival in his hometown, not the best of times began for Bizet; it was not easy to achieve recognition in Paris. He met with Antoine Choudan, who owned the most famous Parisian publishing house. Antoine looked at Georges in surprise: is it really the same young genius who received the prestigious Rome Prize? It was risky to contact a novice composer, but Shudan saw that the young man really needed money and he was ready to take on any job. Antoine invited Bizet to transcribe operas by famous composers for the piano.

For days on end, Georges had to work with other people's musical works, he also gave private lessons and wrote light music to order. He was regularly paid money, but they were constantly not enough. Soon his mother died, and the composer's nervous strain was added to all other problems, a sharp decline in strength began.

He could make an excellent living as a pianist, as friends advised him, but Georges did not look for an easy life path, after all, he completely immersed himself in composing music.

creative path

He was still attracted by musical theater, but everything that Bizet wrote was not approved. No one appreciated the comic opera Don Procopio. But Georges continued to live in need, work and wait.

In 1863, he composed the opera "Pearl Seekers", its premiere took place, eighteen times the work was staged, but then removed from the repertoire. Sleepless nights working on other people's scores returned again, music lessons that had become unloved, poverty. Work for the sake of small money, which was only enough not to die of hunger, took all of Bizet's time, there was no time to engage in creativity. The only thing that saved Georges was walking around Paris in the evening and visiting the theater, in this he found an outlet, it would seem, from a hopeless situation.

The next opera, The Beauty of Perth, was staged in 1867, but was also not a success. In 1868, Bizet began a creative crisis, health problems were added. Georges was saved from a protracted depression by marriage in 1869, but a year later he enlisted in the National Guard to participate in the Franco-Prussian War, which left its mark on family life, health, and the composer's work.

Since 1870, Bizet returned to writing, one after another his musical works were published:

• suite for piano "Children's Games";
• romantic one-act opera "Jamile";
• music for the play "Arlesian".

However, all these compositions were not successful then, despite the fact that in the future they became part of the golden fund of world symphonic works.

In 1874-1875, Georges worked on an opera for P. Mérimée's short story Carmen. Its premiere took place on March 3, 1875. Surprisingly, the opera, recognized as the pinnacle of French realism, bypassing all the world opera stages, becoming the most popular and beloved work in the history of music, failed on the day of its premiere.

The failure of his beloved brainchild led to the tragic end of the composer. Georges Bizet died, and four months later Carmen was an enchanting success at the Vienna Opera. He never found out that a year later this work was staged on all the major stages in Europe, recognized as the pinnacle of his work, that Carmen became the most popular opera in history and in the world.

Personal life

Georges' first love was a girl named Giuseppa, whom he met in Italy. The young man was short-sighted and slightly overweight, and his curls were so tightly intertwined on his head that it was impossible to comb them, so the composer himself considered himself not very attractive to the representatives of the opposite sex. During a conversation with women, he blushed, spoke quickly, lost his way, his palms sweated, and he was very shy about all this.

Georges was intoxicated by the fact that Giuseppa paid attention to him. But the father sent a letter where he informed about the illness of the mother. Bizet had to return to Paris, he called the young bride with him, but Giuseppa could not just leave everything and go to another country. Georges promised the girl that he would write a couple of comic operas, earn a lot of money, return to her and they would live like kings. This did not happen, the composer himself barely survived, he only had memories of his first youthful love.

Georges was already 28 years old when an experienced woman appeared in his life who taught him true love. He met her on the train, it was Mogador (opera diva Lionel, Countess de Chabriyan, writer Celeste Vinard). By the age of 42, the woman became a writer, and her youth was spent in brothels. After a stormy youth, she danced on stage for a long time, and then began to write her novels about life. At the same time, her books did not linger in Parisian stores, Mogador was not mentioned aloud in society, but everyone in Paris knew about this woman.

All the grief of Georges drowned in the passion of this woman. He was happy with her, but not for long. It was hard to endure her mood swings, when Mogador was in anger, then all her worst and most negative qualities woke up. And Bizet had a too vulnerable soul and delicate taste to endure all this. In addition, Mogador was getting old, she had problems with finances, and Georges could not help with money, so this woman no longer needed his love. But he couldn't part with her. Once, during a scandal, Mogador poured a tub of ice water on Georges and drove him out into the street.

The consequence of this was purulent tonsillitis, which doctors discovered in him. Given the fact that Georges had suffered from sore throats and colds since childhood, his health deteriorated even more. The composer fell ill, could not speak, but such physical suffering was negligible compared to the mental ones. A break with Mogador, a miserable existence, a failure in creativity - Bizet approached a state of deepest depression.

Bizet, Georges (1838-1875), French composer. Alexander Cesar Leopold Bizet (at baptism received the name Georges) was born in Paris on October 25, 1838 in a musical family: his father and maternal uncle taught singing. At the age of nine he entered the Paris Conservatoire. He brilliantly studied piano with A.F. Marmontel and composition with P. Zimmerman, J.F.F. Halevi and C. Gounod; was awarded many awards. In 1857 he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome; by that time he had completed a symphony in C major, and Bizet's one-act operetta Le Docteur Miracle won first prize at a competition founded by J. Offenbach.

Bizet spent about three years in Rome, where the beauty of nature and the fine arts influenced him more than Italian music. In the comic opera Don Procopio, written during this period, he imitates Donizetti in many ways; however, of his contemporary composers, Gounod had the greatest influence on him for a long time, and of his predecessors, Mozart and Rossini. An extremely gifted pianist, Bizet earned the recognition of Liszt himself, who listened to him play in May 1861 - a few months after Bizet returned from Rome to Paris.

As usual, Bizet immediately started composing an opera if he liked the libretto, but soon cooled off and left the work unfinished (one of his biographers counted about 20 such fruitless attempts). The composer's first completed and staged opera was The Pearl Seekers (Les Pecheurs de perles, 1863); despite the obvious influence of Gounod and J. Meyerbeer, the charm of lyricism and exotic oriental flavor ensured her a place of honor in the French operatic repertoire. Possessing an outstanding talent, Bizet barely made ends meet and was forced to earn extra money in music publishing houses. Day labor took up a lot of his time, undermined his health and distracted him from serious creativity. The next completed opera, The Beauty of Perth (La jolie fille de Perth), was written in 1866 and staged at the end of 1867. The weak libretto and the composer’s forced concessions to the prima donna undoubtedly affected the quality of the score, but still it contains a lot of wonderful material that Bizet later used in other compositions.

Bizet's versatile talent allowed him to start creating a grand opera, but the first compositions in which his creative abilities were revealed (not counting the early symphony) were pieces for the piano duet Children's games (Jeux d "enfants, 1871), one-act opera Jamileh (Djamileh, 1872) and music for the drama by A. Dode Arlesian (L "Arlsienne, 1872). Bizet's marriage in 1869 to Geneviève Halévy, the daughter of his old teacher, streamlined his life and brought balance to feelings; in the trials that fell to his lot during the Franco-Prussian war (Bizet served in the National Guard) and in the days of the Paris Commune, his personality gained true depth.

In the Children's Games cycle, Bizet showed himself as a master of witty and lyrical miniatures; in Jamil he continued to refine his original orchestral writing, a gift for recreating local color and depicting poetic characters already evident in The Pearl Fishers. The music for the Arlesienne testifies to the further creative growth of the composer: in several dances, intermezzos and melodramas, he managed to convey not only the atmosphere of Provence, but also the lyrical-tragic element of Dode's drama.

The excellent libretto chosen by Bizet for the next opera for the first time corresponded to the uniqueness of his talent: it was a staging of the novel by Prosper Merimee Carmen (Carmen), made by A. Melyak and L. Halevi. Bizet began work in 1872, but the premiere at the Paris Opera Comic took place only on March 3, 1875. An impressive success at the Vienna Opera (October 1875) made it possible to present the true value of the work. Bizet died June 3, 1875.

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