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Image:Georges bizet.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Georges
Bizet
Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3,
1875), was a France|French composer of the
romantic era best known for his opera Carmen.

Born Alexandre-César-Léopold, but baptized
Georges, Bizet, a child prodigy, entered the
prestigious Paris Conservatory of Music at the
unheard-of age of nine.

In 1857 he shared a prize offered by Jacques
Offenbach for a setting of the one-act operetta Le
Docteur Miracle and won the Prix de Rome. As per
the conditions of the scholarship, he studied in
Rome for three years. There, his talent began to
mature with such works as Symphony in C (Roma) and
the opera Don Procopio. Besides this stay in Rome,
Bizet lived in the Paris area for his entire life.

Following his stay in Rome, he returned to Paris
where he dedicated himself to composition. Early
into his return to Paris, Georges' mother died. In
1863 he composed the Opera|opera Les Pecheurs de
Perles|Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers)
for the Theatre-Lyrique. During this period Bizet
also wrote the opera La jolie fille de Perth, his
well-known L'arlésienne (written as incidental
music for a play), and the piano piece Jeux
d'enfants (Children's games) He also wrote the
romantic opera Djamileh, which is often seen as a
percursor to Carmen.

Bizet's best-known work is his 1875 opera, Carmen,
which was based on an 1846 novel of the same name
by Prosper Mérimée. Influenced by Giuseppe
Verdi, he composed the title role in Carmen for a
mezzo-soprano. Not an immediate success, Bizet
became despondent over the perceived failure, but
praise came from such luminaries as Camille
Saint-Saëns, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Peter
Tchaikovsky, and Claude Debussy, who recognized
its greatness. Their views were prophetic, as the
public made Carmen one of the most popular works
in operatic history.

Bizet had long suffered from peritonsillar
abscess|quinsy, a painful inflammation of the
tonsils associated with angina and never got to
enjoy Carmen's success. Just a few months after
the opera's debut, he died on his sixth wedding
anniversary at the early age of 36, the official
cause of death being listed as a failed heart due
to "acute articular rheumatism". He was interred
in the Père Lachaise|Père Lachaise Cemetery,
Paris, France.

The 1954 motion picture Carmen Jones, adapted from
the opera, won the Golden Globe Award for Best
Motion Picture Musical.

Although it is not well known, Bizet was an
extraordinarily fine pianist, whose playing was
praised by no less a judge than Franz Liszt
himself.  After Bizet flawlessly sightread a
complex piece, Liszt said he considered Bizet one
of the three finest pianists in Europe.

==Media==
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multi-listen item|filename=Toreador
song.ogg|title=The Toreador Song|description=From
Carmen|format=Ogg
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==External links==

* http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/bizet.html
Georges Bizet
*
http://www.mfiles.co.uk/Composers/Georges-Bizet.ht
m Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
* http://www.pianoparadise.com/bizet.html Bizet
Biography