BIZET (ALEXANDRE CiSAR LiOPOLD) GEORGES '875), French musical composer, was born at Bougival, near Paris, Oct. 25, 1838, the son of a singing-master. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Halevy and in 1857 won the Grand Prix de Rome for a cantata called Cloris et Clotilde. After the three years spent in Rome, Bizet returned to Paris, where he achieved a reputation as a pianist and accompanist. His first opera, Les Pecheurs de perles, was produced (Sept. 23, 1863) at the Theatre Lyrique, but did not enjoy a very long run. It con tains none the less some delightful music and some of its dances are now usually introduced into the fourth act of Carmen.
On June 3, 1865, Bizet married a daughter of his old master, Halevy. His second opera, La Jolie Fille de Perth, was produced at the Theatre Lyrique on Dec. 26, 1867, and one number, the favourite and characteristic Bohemian dance, has been interpolated into the fourth act of Carmen. In his third opera Djamileh (Opera Comique, May 22, 1872) Bizet returned to an oriental subject. In all these works Bizet was accused of Wagnerian ten dencies, which was then a most serious condemnation in Parisian musical circles. But he won a great popular success with the incidental music which he wrote to Alphonso Daudet's drama, L'Arlesienne, produced in Oct. 1872.
Bizet's masterpiece, Carmen, was produced at the Opera Com ique on March 3, 1875. It was based on a version by Meilhac and Halevy of a study by Prosper Merimee. In reconstructing the familiar story in dramatic form the authors produced one of the most striking and successful libretti in the whole range of opera. In this "book" Bizet found material exactly fitted for his romantic music, and the resulting opera, although at first coolly received in Paris, has long since taken its place, by universal consent in every operatic repertoire.
On June 3, three months after the production of Carmen in Paris, Bizet died of heart disease.