Georges Bizet - Introduction

In his short passage from the earth - he lived for only thirty-seven years - Georges Bizet never tasted the happiness of success. Yet this admiredly gifted composer also possessed a work, the opera Carmen, which was meant to be one of the most popular music compositions. The constant compromises he was forced to make have certainly been an obstacle to the enjoyment of the popularity he deserved.

His opponents outnumbered his supporters. But considering that Nietzsche proposed Bizet's music as an antidote to the sonic rationality, dogmatism and meticulousness of Wagnerian lyrical dramas, we understand that the acceptance or rejection of the French composer's music was primarily a matter of not as much objective value and assimilated disposition as prejudices and antagonisms.

In his short and not particularly bright life, some relatively time devoted to primary musical creation. He did not make the most of his abilities and facilities, but composed music full of freshness and charm with orchestrations of transparency and colorfulness at the same time, music full of soothing qualities but also triggering of excitement and emotion mechanisms.

And we must not forget, of course, that his masterpiece Carmen, a play watered down with theatrical realism, holds the place of the forerunner of Italian verism.