Georges Bizet's premature death meant he didn't have time to savor the success
of his opera Carmen, one of the most widely performed in the world. With a
father who was a singing teacher and a mother who was a pianist,
Alexandre-César-Léopold Bizet, born in Paris on October 25, 1838 and renamed
Georges at his baptism in 1940, came into contact with music from an early age.
At the age of nine, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers
included Antoine Marmontel (piano) and François Benoist (organ). Awarded first
prize in 1851 and second prize in 1852, the following ye...