Georges Bizet just had his 186th birthday on Oct. 25. If this is not exactly a neat, round number that presents an opportunity for public celebration, it’s a good enough excuse for a brief appreciation.
Paris, the Center of the Universe
Bizet was born in Paris in 1838. Except for a few short trips, he rarely ventured beyond the city suburbs. Why leave the cultural center of the universe?
Paris was the 19th-century Hollywood; its fashions and entertainments exported around the globe. There was a greater concentration of famous musicians in the city around the time of Bizet’s birth than anywhere in the world: the pianists Chopin and Liszt; the violin virtuoso Paganini; and the opera composers Verdi, Rossini, and Wagner (among many others).
At the center of high cultural life was the Paris Opera. Among the sophisticated classes, attendance was mandatory. The elites would have enjoyed huge-scale productions that filled an entire evening with the best singing anywhere, engrossed in a plot involving a conflict between individual passions and social norms that usually ended in the death of the main characters.
A ‘Typical’ Musical Prodigy
Reading biographies of European composers from the 18th and 19th century, one compiles a sort of standard outline of the musical genius. Call this the “prodigy’s progress”: A young child is discovered to have extraordinary instrumental abilities, nurtured by eager parents, trained by the best teachers, and embarks on a brilliant career of performance and composition. This relentless, single-minded obsession and the uncertainties of a musical career usually results in emotional problems.
Bizet follows this outline with some unique variations thrown in. As a boy, he listened in on the singing lessons taught by his father, memorizing pieces, and performed them by heart. He developed a facility for sight-reading and voraciously consumed music scores in the same way a book lover reads novels.
His mother taught him the piano, an instrument in which he showed great talent. Fortunately, Paris was also the piano capital of the world, and he was able to use all the resources at his disposal to develop his abilities. He gained admittance to the prestigious Paris Conservatoire, where he won first prize in a piano competition at the age of 14.
‘Carmen’
Bizet had difficulty getting his early works staged, and, when they were, they were not very successful. The lack of critical appreciation Bizet received caused him to experience anxiety and a lack of self-confidence. These emotional issues were exacerbated by physical problems, particularly a chronic throat condition that was brought on by heavy smoking.In mid 1872, Bizet had hope that things might turn around. He received a commission for a three-act opera and settled on adapting an 1845 novella “Carmen,” by Prosper Mérimée. Set in Spain, it tells the story of Don José, a soldier who becomes infatuated with an alluring gypsy Carmen. As their love affair unfolds, Carmen rejects Don José for the more glamorous bullfighter Escamillo. This leads to a tragic climax where Don José kills Carmen in a fit of jealous rage.
While Bizet’s operatic adaptation shocked Parisian audiences because of the scandalous treatment of its heroine, it is remembered as a great opera today because of its musical innovations. Bizet integrated Spanish folk melodies and dance rhythms into the music in ways that articulate the characters’ personalities. Carmen’s seductive arias, for example, are contrasted with the more elegiac songs of the character Micaëla. The lines between recitative and aria are blurred, and the chorus serves not just as background music but as an active element in the story. At key moments in Carmen’s interaction with characters, Bizet repeatedly uses brass and percussion to initiate a chromatic descent in a minor key, foreshadowing her doom.
‘The Pearl Fishers’
For a long time, Bizet was known solely for his smash hit. This is starting to change, though. Hugh Macdonald’s 2014 biography “Bizet” is the first English-language book on Bizet to appear in nearly four decades, and the first to focus on the composer’s works prior to “Carmen.”The best of these operas is now generally considered to be “The Pearl Fishers.” This would have surprised critics during Bizet’s lifetime. When it was first produced in 1863, it received bad reviews, was performed only 18 times, and was quickly forgotten. Recently, however, “The Pearl Fishers” has been experiencing a popular revival and is now regularly produced.
Like “Carmen,” the story relies on a love triangle trope. Capitalizing on the 19th-century Parisian fascination for exotic cultures, it tells the story of an Indian priestess Leila and her love for two fishermen. Caught between her religious obligations and her passion, the plot is nonetheless not as scandalous as “Carmen” and ends on a happier note, with Leila and her chosen lover Nadir escaping death.
The most famous song in this opera is the aria “Au fond du temple saint,” which has been variously translated as “In the inner sanctum of the holy temple” or “At the back of the holy temple,” but is more commonly referred to in English as “The Pearl Fishers Duet.”
Though Bizet was not yet 25 when he wrote this powerful duet for tenor and baritone, he already displayed his mature development in the French Romantic style. The two fishermen, Zurga and Nadir, vow to maintain their friendship despite both being in love with the priestess Leila. The song transitions between a common time (4/4) and waltz time (3/4) signature, showcasing the wide vocal ranges of both singers. Seamlessly blending both voices together, its flowing melodies overlap with its rich harmonic texture to contribute to the scene’s emotional depth.
While “Carmen” has left a lasting legacy on the world of opera, Bizet’s lesser-known works also offer hope for enchanting more audiences in the future.
