Yet, Bizet rejected concertizing to focus on composition, a wise decision at the time, when the former era of composer/pianists had ceded to an age of compartmentalization in which pieces by performers were dismissed as trivial indulgences. He won the Prix de Rome and his playing was acclaimed by Berlioz and Liszt. Pushed into music by his parents and taught at first by his father, Bizet boded to become one of the finest pianists of his time. There had been few clues to the ultimate success of Carmen, either in the career of its composer or along the route to its first production. When Georges Bizet died in June 1875 at age 37, none of his prior efforts had attained either commercial success or artistic recognition and he had no inkling that his recent opera Carmen, which had reaped blisteringly negative reviews and was playing to near-empty houses, would soon become acclaimed by both critics and public as one of greatest operas ever written – and the most popular of them all. Even sadder is when a composer like Mozart or Schubert dies far too soon, unaware that within his normal lifetime he would have reaped extraordinary fame and fortune from his early work.

Thus, Bach's reputation was provincial, Beethoven was marginalized, Mahler a conductor's whim. It's a sad but oft-repeated tale in classical music – so many of those now hailed as visionary geniuses died thinking themselves a failure or at best only a modest success.

Our consideration of George Bizet’s hugely popular opera Carmen explores its creation, its reception, its remarkable artistry, an outline of its structure, its subsequent fame, the profusion of early recordings, some historically significant LP recordings and some sources for further information.

Carmen opera first performance