have simply been the Habanera from Carmen were it not for the mobile phone, but the chirpy first tune of the overture is now inescapable thanks to ring tones. Bizet based the aria on ‘El Arreglito’, a song written by Spanish composer Sebastián de Yradier, who had spent time in Cuba. Personalities | Georges Bizet | High Romantic | ...
the fugitive she had saved, and has done this to give them a chance to escape. They embrace and then Nadir and Leïla run off together. Personalities | Georges Bizet | High Romantic | Opera ...
1838–75, French Out of 30 projected operas, Bizet only completed six but would no doubt have left more had his life not been cut short at the age of 36. Born in Paris into a musical family, he was prodigiously gifted and started lessons at the Conservatoire before he was 10. He was taught composition by Fromental Halévy ...
(Zhôrzh Be-za’) 1838–75 French composer When Bizet died at the age of 37, he was considered a failure by the French musical establishment. He had had several operas produced in Paris, but none of them had been wholly successful; now his latest work, Carmen, had caused a scandal. Bizet’s reputation was at its lowest ebb, but already ...
, but it lacks brilliance and bite. Consequently a pair of cornets was often used in conjunction with a pair of trumpets. Louis-Hector Berlioz (1803–69), César Franck (1822–90) and Georges Bizet (1838–1875) were early champions of the cornet, and it was also used successfully by Edward Elgar (1857–1934) and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971). The trumpet was slower to develop into a ...
Adolphe Sax’s most famous invention, the saxophone, was patented in 1846. This new family of instruments is a cross between the single-reed woodwind family and the keyed brass instruments of the early nineteenth century such as the ophicleides, which are said to have influenced him. Each member of the family combines the single reed and mouthpiece, familiar ...
Donizetti’s retreat. A similar story surrounds Georges Bizet’s (1838–75) use of the saxophone in the incidental music to L’Arlésienne, with a clarinet often taking the saxophone part. However, Bizet retained the saxophone’s designation in the score and it has become one of the most celebrated examples of successful use of the instrument. Other examples include Maurice Ravel’s (1875–1937) Boléro ...
The Queen of Spades, based on another story by Pushkin, was Tchaikovsky’s penultimate opera and one in which western influences were particularly evident. It was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on 19 December 1890. However, 20 years passed before it was staged at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 5 March 1910 and ...
his students included Sullivan (1842–1900) and Parry. Recommended Recording: Piano Concertos, Malcolm Binns, London PO (cond) Nicholas Braithwaite (Lyrita) Introduction | Late Romantic | Classical Personalities | Georges Bizet | Late Romantic | Classical ...
1840–1902, French Zola’s influence on French opera extended beyond his libretti for the composer Alfred Bruneau as his realist credo became known not only through his novels but also through public exposure. While Bizet’s Carmen began the trend for realistic events, Zola’s ideas confirmed it. Charpentier’s Louise is notable, and there are also works by Gabriel Dupont, ...
1850–1905, Italian The Italian tenor Francesco Tamagno was idolized for his powerful voice and dramatic delivery. Tamagno thrilled his many admirers with his effortless top C, which not all tenors were able to reach, and his passionate on-stage performances. His voice was described as ‘enduring brass’. Otello, the eponymous hero of Verdi’s penultimate opera, which he ...
, and took the roles of the Wanderer and Wotan in the first performance of Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. Introduction | High Romantic | Opera Personalities | Georges Bizet | High Romantic | Opera ...
collaboration with other writers. Meilhac’s most renowned partnership, which began after a chance meeting outside a Paris theatre in 1860, was with Ludovic Halévy. They produced libretti for Bizet, Léo Delibes (1836–91) and most famously for Offenbach. Meilhac and Halévy had great talent for depicting and satirizing the foibles and shortcomings of human nature. The Meilhac-Halévy libretto for ...
(Zhak Of’-fen-bakh) 1819–80 French composer Offenbach’s tuneful, witty and often outrageous satires on Greek mythology and the Second Empire enthralled the French public, including the Emperor Louis-Napoleon. After only one year at the Paris Conservatoire, he joined the Opéra-Comique orchestra, studying with Halévy, and toured as a virtuoso cellist. After conducting at the Théâtre Français, he ...
composer Cherubini, who was a great influence on him. Halévy won the Prix de Rome in 1819 and taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1827 (where his pupils included Bizet and Gounod). A prolific writer, Halévy composed 40 operas; however, it was his first serious grand opera, La Juive (‘The Jewish Girl’, 1835), that proved to be ...
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