“Bizet: The Pioneer in the Shadows” is a 3-part lecture series on Georges Bizet, accompanied each week by two of Opera Prelude’s young singers and Laurie O’Brien (piano). In this edition, we go inside the score with Lewis Gaston (conductor), accompanied by Rosie Clifford (mezzo) and Richard Dowling (tenor).
In this last lecture of the series, we end with the composer’s signature piece, Carmen (1875). With the chorus on strike due to the difficulty of the opera’s music, an out of tune Don José for the premier, and the usual cries of “Wagnerism” from critics, Bizet never went back after the first night. Instead he wandered the streets as usual and later died after the 33rd performance at the age of 36. In March 1875 Tchaikovsky claimed it would one day be the most popular opera in the world.
Bizet (1838-1875) sits amongst the romantic heroes, not as a character from an opera but as a composer forever the victim of circumstance, misfortune and an early death. Despite the steadfast place Carmen holds within the repertory, Bizet died before the opera achieved the fame it holds today. Only his father, who lived on after him, could witness the success his son had always strived for. In these three lectures we will take three of Bizet’s works in the context of his entire oeuvre, much of it lost now.
