In fact, on careful listening, this piece recalls Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and Mozart as well as Gounod’s Symphony in D. This piece was not performed until 1935 because Bizet was afraid that he would be charged with imitation, it was that strongly influenced by his teacher Gounod. In 1855, at the age of seventeen, he composed his lovely Symphony in C. His years there were punctuated by a series of prizes for theory, piano, organ and composition. It is said that he could read and write music by the age of four, and with a very encouraging family (his parents actually hid books from him to suppress his literary bent and encourage more diligent applications to music), Bizet’s future in music was pre-ordained.īizet entered the Paris Conservatory de Musique in 1848 at the age of nine, and studied under Zimmerman, Halévy and Gounod until the age of twenty. It seems likely that Bizet was probably as musically precocious as Mendelssohn or Mozart. His mother was a pianist and his father taught voice and composed. Georges Alexandre César Léopold Bizet was born on Octoin Paris.

Carmen opera paris