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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Composer of the Week: Georges Bizet (1838-1875): Episode 5: The Final Act

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Final Act

The Final Act

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Georges Bizet (1838-1875), The Final Act

Donald Macleod focuses on how Bizet brought his masterpiece Carmen to the stage.

Donald Macleod focuses on how Bizet brought his masterpiece Carmen to the stage, as well as the composer's failing health.

The choice of libretto was his, as was the choice of singer. So what could possibly go wrong with the first night of Carmen? Donald Macleod concludes his account of the life and work of George Bizet. 

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 concluding episode, we find Bizet exploring an exotic eastern setting with his opera Djamileh and experiencing the joys of parenthood, as his wife gives birth to a son. Despite setbacks at the theatre, he enjoys a rare taste of success as the music to the melodrama L'Arlésienne starts to enjoy an independent existence away from the theatre. And finally, making the bold choice of the novella Carmen for a theme, Bizet strives to bring his final masterpiece to the stage.

Overture (Djamileh)
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Lamberto Gardelli, conductor

'Nour Eddin, roi de Lahore', from Djamileh
Huguette Tourangeau, soprano
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Richard Bonynge, conductor

L'Arlésienne Suite (ed. Hogwood)
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Christopher Hogwood, conductor

Tarantelle 
Cecilia Bartoli, soprano
Myung Whun Chung, piano

Carmen (Act 4) 
Marina Domashenko, soprano (Carmen)
Andrea Bocelli, tenor (Don José)
Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone (Escamillo)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung Whun Chung, conductor.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Georges Bizet

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Georges Bizet, a composer who seldom enjoyed success in his lifetime but was known for writing what is possibly the best-known opera in the world

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Episode 5: The Final Act

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