The great genius of classical music, the french composer...
(1838-1875) French composer. His opera Carmen is one of the most important products of this genre. Alexandre Cesar Leopold Bizet (baptismal name Georges) was born on October 25, 1838, in Paris. He was the son of a musical family. His father was a singing teacher and his mother was a successful pianist.
He was a child with musical talent and received a good education in this field. At the age of nine, despite his young age, he was accepted to the Paris Conservatory thanks to his knowledge and the level he has reached in piano. He became a very successful student in this school, where he continued for ten years, and won various awards. He also took lessons from the composer C. Gounod. Bizet was greatly influenced by Gounod and a close friendship developed between them.
His C Major Symphony, which he composed in 1855 at the age of seventeen, remained unknown until 1935, although it was a successful and interesting work. The composer's winning the Rome prize in 1857 allowed him to travel to Italy for three years. This trip contributed to his cultural development more than his music. He drafted many compositions in Italy but completed only three works. Te Deum, a religious theme, was never played. Don Procopio, an opera buffa (comic opera), was composed with an Italian text and in Italian style. A lively and melodically rich work, this opera is considered the most original of Bizet's Italian works. Vasco da Gama was a symphonic poem with the chorus. It bears the obvious influences of Gounod and hardly went beyond the usual patterns; however, local colors and fantastic elements herald the future development of Bizet.
In September 1860, while in Venice, Bizet received a letter from his mother, who had fallen ill, and had to return to Paris immediately. The next summer, his mother died. This incident intensified Bizet's angry, fierce personality and increased his hypersensitivity.
When he returned from Italy, he decided to show himself as an opera composer. In 1862, a one-act opera-comique, La Guzla de l'Emir ("The Emir's Guzla") was accepted to be played. However, when he received a proposal for another opera, he gave up playing this work. His new opera, Les pecbeursde perles ("Pearl Hunters"), which he composed with difficulty due to his personality traits, was staged in September 1863 but ended in failure. Although this is not considered a very important work, it is striking with its melodies and harmonic weave with an Eastern atmosphere.
When Bizet could not make himself accepted in opera, he had to make a living by giving lessons and orchestrating dance music. The year 1866 passed with intense work. He continued to work on the Roman Symphony he had begun earlier, composing several songs and completing a new opera, La Jolie Fille de Perth (“The Beautiful Girl from Perth”). This opera, which he composed by adhering to the contract even though he did not like the text, was staged in the last days of 1867, with a delay of one year, and was the only opera that was positively received by both the public and the press.
In 1867, while continuing his composition studies, he also began to publish his views on music. The following year his health deteriorated. An important disease appeared in his throat, and he went into mental depression. Fragments from the opera La Coupe da Roi de Thule (“The Chalice of the King of Thule”), which he wrote at that time, have features that reflect this mood of the composer.
The presence of a conservative general manager in the management of the opera made it very difficult for Bizet to attract attention. The appointment of a new assistant director in 1869 gave the composer the opportunity to work on two operas. These operas, Griselidis and Clarissa Harlowe were not completed. Some of the themes of the composer's later works, the L'Arlessienrie suite, and the opera Carmen, are included in them. In the same year, Bizet married the daughter of his teacher Halevy, whom he had been in love with for almost two years.
The events that started with the Franco-German war in July 1870 greatly affected him. He joined the National Army and did not hesitate to stay in the city even when Paris was besieged. He did not accept proposals to compose enthusiastic folk songs. III. Napoleon welcomed the collapse of my empire. Although he did not endorse or defend the Paris Commune, he did not support the attitudes taken against the Commune. However, when the street fights became too dangerous, he left Paris. Although he thought of emigrating to another country during this period, he ultimately decided to stay in France. He did not hesitate to praise Wagner's music in an environment where national sentiments reached extreme levels with the devastation of the war. These events greatly influenced Bizet's thoughts on subjects such as nationality, and the relationship between art and politics, and at the same time enabled him to mature both as a person and as a musician.
The last years of Bizet's short life constitute a period in which he reached his highest level of productivity. However, this did not bring him the success he longed for. His new opera, Djamileh, a product of the summer of 1871, was staged in May 1872 and was hardly appreciated. Despite the dryness of the libretto (Opera text), with its oriental tone and rich orchestration, this work, which is claimed to be an example of Bizet's original music, was only played again in 1938, on the 100th anniversary of its birth. In the autumn of 1871, he composed a suite of twelve pieces called Jeux d'enjants ("Children's Plays") for two pianos. One of them was arranged for orchestra under the name Petit Suite d'orchester. At the same time, his orchestral music for A. Daudet's tragedy L'Arlessienne ended in complete failure in 1872. The play did not even stay on the stage for three weeks. However, L'Arlessienne would be a huge success when played again in 1885.
It is estimated that Bizet's last major work and one of the best-known examples of opera art, Carmen, began in 1873. During the years when the opera was composed, Bizet was experiencing disappointing events and his health was deteriorating frequently. The work, which was completed in 1874, was scheduled to be staged in the fall. However, the performance was postponed, probably due to the dissatisfaction of the conservative opera management with the subject of the opera. The change of the opera director at the beginning of 1875 not only allowed the rehearsals to begin but also provided Bizet with an income of 25,000 francs. The composer was awarded the Legion d'Honneur Chevalier. Carmen was played 37 times during the year. The work, which would later take a distinguished place in the history of opera, was not appreciated and received negative criticism. Georges Bizet died on June 3, 1875, when Carmen would be played for the 31st time.
The development of Bizet is not much different from other French composers of his time. Unsuccessful operas follow his conservatory education and his trip to Italy. Bizet has strongly resisted and endured these failures. His views on music, which he developed during his years in Italy, seem to be based on some kind of intuition, not a deep analysis. Bizet briefly divided composers into those who made good music and those who could not. He took the example of musicians who could easily compose with a natural talent and advised his students to be interested in these as well. According to Bizet, Mozart and Rossini were at the forefront of these composers. Despite all the difficulties and disappointments he experienced, he maintained his belief that he had such a talent.
He seems to have proven this trust with Carmen. But while Carmen is his masterpiece, it should not be seen as an extraordinary achievement. His effort to produce his own original works in constant interaction with the musical life of his own period spreads almost throughout his life. The C-Major Symphony, which he composed at the age of 17, is the first product of this effort. This work, which was able to enter concert life with a delay of a century, has gained a solid place in the world of a symphony with its lyrical and impressive features. It reminds Schubert's symphonies in terms of style, structure, and materials used. However, these symphonies were not well known at the time they were composed. The Oriental mood in the second part is also a feature seen in many later French composers.
Bizet's searching attitude led him to leave many works unfinished and to think that rational effort should be included instead of composing spontaneously from time to time. In a letter he wrote to Gouiod in 1858, he mentions the difficulty of finding his own originality and states that there has been a temporary stagnation in his style. However, it cannot be said that his inclination towards “conscious” music like Gounod opened a successful and productive period for Bizet.
In his first important opera, İnci Avcıları, the composer was able to provide a local atmosphere, poetry, and expressive expression. However, this successful efficiency and sensitivity is not seen in the whole of the work. Gounod effects appearing in places have led to both positive and negative features. The opera La Jolie Fille de Perth is also considered a partially successful work. This opera, which reaches a more mature level than the Pearl Hunters in terms of the treatment of the subject, is not that rich in terms of local colors and harmony innovations. Nevertheless, it constitutes an important step in Bizet's "finding oneself" process. There are traces of Meycrbeer and Wagner in both operas. At that time, Meyerbeer had an influence in France, and Wagner throughout the West, much more lasting. Meyerbeer was the leading representative of the "Grand Opera" style, which emphasized formality and gravitated towards the refined French tastes of the period. Bizet's lively, colorful music that wanted to immerse itself in different cultures, albeit from afar, had to gain its independent personality in front of him, despite all the legacy it received from this genre. As a matter of fact, in the second of these operas, Meyerbeer's influence is less.
Wagner's opera, on the other hand, had such a widespread and deep influence that almost every opera composer had to determine his position. All of Bizet's operas were also accused of imitating Wagner. However, while he considered Wagner a great artist, he aimed to get rid of this influence both for himself and for the French opera tradition. Some repetitions of themes, which Bizet resorts to in his attempts to draw characters in theatrical stage works, really resemble Wagner's Leitmotiv technique, but this cannot be considered an imitation either in terms of its origin or the way it is used.
In the opera Djamileh, which he composed in 1871, Bizet believed that he had found the originality he was looking for. This work had no repercussions, but L'Arlessenne and Carmen who followed it proved that Bizet was right. L'Arlessienne is an orchestral piece with high expressive power, woven with rich melodies reflecting the country atmosphere, in full collaboration with Daudet's play, and constitutes one of the leading examples of the thematic music genre.
Carmen, on the other hand, is the pinnacle of the French opera-comique tradition. Although it has received many criticisms, it has now established its superior value. The treatment of the subject, the reality of the characters, and the combination of dramatic elements, Carmen's. secured this position. The main bearing axis of the work is Bizet music, in which aesthetics and expression are successfully fused.