Editing Georges Bizet (section)

===War and upheaval===
[[File:Franco-Prussian War - Students Going to Man the Barricades - Illustrated London News Oct 1 1870.jpg|thumb|upright|Paris during the siege, 1870–71. A contemporary English cartoon]]
After a series of perceived provocations from Prussia, culminating in the offer of the Spanish crown to the Prussian [[Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern|Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern]], the French Emperor Napoleon III declared war on 15 July 1870. Initially, this step was supported by an outbreak of patriotic fervour and confident expectations of victory.<ref name= OMO/><ref>Steen, p. 591</ref> Bizet, along with other composers and artists, joined the [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] and began training.<ref name= Curtiss259>Curtiss, pp. 259–262</ref> He was critical of the antiquated equipment with which he was supposed to fight; his unit's guns, he said, were more dangerous to themselves than to the enemy.<ref name= Letters>{{Cite journal
  | last = Curtiss
  | first = Mina
  |author2=Bizet, Georges
  | title = Unpublished Letters by Georges Bizet
  | journal =[[The Musical Quarterly]]
  | volume = 36
  | issue = 3
  | pages = 375–409
  | publisher = Oxford University Press
  | date = July 1950
  | jstor = 739910
  | doi=10.1093/mq/xxxvi.3.375
  }}{{subscription required}}</ref> The national mood was soon depressed by news of successive reverses; at [[Battle of Sedan (1870)|Sedan]] on 2 September, the French armies suffered an overwhelming defeat; Napoleon was captured and deposed, and the [[Second Empire (France)|Second Empire]] came to a sudden end.<ref name= Curtiss259/>

Bizet greeted with enthusiasm the proclamation in Paris of the [[Third Republic (France)|Third Republic]].<ref name= Curtiss259/> The new government did not sue for peace, and by 17 September, the Prussian armies had surrounded Paris.<ref name= Steen594>Steen, p. 594</ref> Unlike Gounod, who fled to England,<ref>Curtiss, p. 263</ref> Bizet rejected opportunities to leave the besieged city: "I can't leave Paris! It's impossible! It would be quite simply an act of cowardice", he wrote to Mme Halévy.<ref name= Letters/> Life in the city became frugal and harsh,{{refn|Although there were few instances of actual starvation during the Siege, infant mortality rose considerably because of a shortage of milk. The main sources of meat were horses and domestic pets: "It has been calculated that during the entire Siege 65,000 horses, 5,000 cats and 1,200 dogs were eaten".<ref>Steen, p. 596</ref>|group= n}} although, by October, there were efforts to re-establish normality. Pasdeloup resumed his regular Sunday concerts, and on 5 November, the Opéra reopened with excerpts from works by Gluck, Rossini, and Meyerbeer.<ref name= Steen594/><ref>Curtiss, p. 268</ref>

An armistice was signed on 26 January 1871, but the departure of the Prussian troops from Paris in March presaged a period of confusion and civil disturbance. Following an uprising, the city's municipal authority was taken over by dissidents who established the [[Paris Commune]].<ref>Steen, pp. 598–601</ref> Bizet decided that he was no longer safe in the city, and he and Geneviève escaped to [[Compiègne]].<ref name= Letters/> Later, they moved to [[Le Vésinet]] where they sat out the two months of the Commune, within hearing distance of the gunfire that resounded as government troops gradually crushed the uprising: "The cannons are rumbling with unbelievable violence", Bizet wrote to his mother-in-law on 12 May.<ref name= Letters/><ref>Dean (1965), p. 87</ref>