RomanticGeorges Bizet
Georges Bizet was born in Paris into a family of musicians.
Georges Bizet’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1838👶 Birth
Born in Paris on 25 October into a family of musicians
- 1839🌍 Meanwhile
Photography is invented (daguerreotype)
- 1840🌍 Meanwhile
Adolphe Sax invents the saxophone (c. 1840)
- 1848📚 Trainingage 10
Enters the Paris Conservatoire before turning 10
- 1855🎼 Workage 17
Symphony in C, at 17 (rediscovered in 1933)
- 1857🎩 Careerage 19
Prix de Rome; winner of an operetta contest run by Offenbach
- 1858🧳 Journeyage 20
Three years at the Villa Medici in Rome
- 1863🎼 Workage 25
The Pearl Fishers
- 1869❤️ Private lifeage 31
Marries Geneviève Halévy, his teacher’s daughter
- 1870🏛️ Landmarkage 32
Franco-Prussian War; he serves in the National Guard
- 1871🎼 Workage 33
Jeux d’enfants, for piano duet
- 1874🌍 Meanwhile
First exhibition of the Impressionist painters
- 1875🕯️ Deathage 37
Dies in Bougival on 3 June, aged 36
- 1875🌍 Meanwhile
The Palais Garnier opera house opens in Paris
Listen to the music
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Georges Bizet was born in Paris into a family of musicians. He learned his notes at the same time as his letters! He entered the Conservatoire before he was even ten.
He was an incredible pianist, but his dream was opera. He also wrote Jeux d’enfants, little pieces that imitate a spinning top, a doll, a merry-go-round and soap bubbles.
His masterpiece is Carmen, the story of a free and brave young woman in Spain. The audience at the time was shocked, and Bizet was very disappointed. He died three months later, at thirty-six.
He never knew that Carmen would become one of the most famous operas in the world!
Georges Bizet’s instruments
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