After the prize of staying in Rome with a full student grant, Bizet must return to Paris and make his own way in the world.

A man of multiple love affairs who became devoted to his neurotic wife; a superb pianist who studiously avoided the concert stage; a man for ever associated with Spain, even though he'd never been there - George Bizet is a mass of contradictions. As well as composing what is arguably the world's best known and most popular opera - Carmen - Bizet also composed some spectacular flops. Always seeking popular as well as critical success, that was the very thing that eluded him during his lifetime. And yet, despite the caustic discouragement of Parisian reviewers, Bizet wrote songs and operas of astonishing beauty, even if the plots and libretti didn't always match the composer's dramatic sense.

In today's episode, Bizet returns from Italy to rush to his mother's sickbed. He comforts her, and he in turn is comforted by his mother's nurse - by whom he fathers a son. Despite his prodigious gifts as a pianist (praised by no less a genius than Franz Liszt) Bizet studiously avoids the concert platform, instead eking out a living through proof-reading, writing humdrum piano transcriptions and teaching piano. He will also write The Pearl Fishers.

Nocturne in F major
Julia Severus, piano

La marguerite a fermé sa corolle (from Vasco da Gama)
Joan Sutherland, soprano
Swiss Romande Orchestra
Richard Bonynge, conductor

Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Act 2, excerpt)
Pierrette Alarie, soprano (Léïla)
Leopold Simoneau, tenor (Nadir)
Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux
Jean Fournet, conductor

Ivan IV, Act 2 (excerpt)
Paul Gay, bass (Temryuk),
Julian Gavi, tenor (Igor)
Orchestre National de France
Michael Schonwandt, conductor

Venise
Julia Severus, piano. Show less