Editing Georges Bizet (section)

===Early years===
====Family background and childhood====
Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He was registered as Alexandre César Léopold, but baptised as "Georges" on 16 March 1840, and was known by this name for the rest of his life. His father, Adolphe Bizet, had been a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training.<ref>Dean (1965), p. 1</ref> He also composed a few works, including at least one published song.<ref name= C7>Curtiss, p. 7</ref> In 1837, Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect; the Delsartes, though impoverished, were a cultured and highly musical family.<ref name= D2>Dean (1965), pp. 2–4</ref> Aimée was an accomplished pianist, while her brother [[François Delsarte]] was a distinguished singer and teacher who performed at the courts of both [[Louis Philippe I|Louis Philippe]] and [[Napoleon III]].<ref>Curtiss, pp. 8–10</ref> François Delsarte's wife Rosine, a musical prodigy, had been an assistant professor of [[solfeggio|solfège]] at the [[Conservatoire de Paris]] at the age of 13.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 12–13</ref> At least one author has suggested that Aimée was from a Jewish family, but this is not substantiated in any of Georges' official biographies.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9YZgJW1u9vYC&pg=PA123|title=Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)|first=Timothy L.|last=Jackson|author-link=Timothy L. Jackson|date=7 October 1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521646765|access-date=17 November 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>[[Philip Bohlman]], ''Jewish Musical Modernism, Old and New'', University of Chicago Press (2008), p. 10</ref>

Georges, an only child,<ref name= D2/> showed early aptitude for music and quickly picked up the basics of musical notation from his mother, who probably gave him his first piano lessons.<ref name= C7/> By listening at the door of the room where Adolphe conducted his classes, Georges learned to sing difficult songs accurately from memory and developed an ability to identify and analyse complex [[chord (music)|chordal structures]]. This precocity convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the Conservatoire even though he was still only nine years old (the minimum entry age was 10). Georges was interviewed by [[Joseph Meifred]], the [[French horn|horn]] virtuoso who was a member of the Conservatoire's Committee of Studies. Meifred was so struck by the boy's demonstration of his skills that he waived the age rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available.<ref name= D2/><ref>Curtiss, pp. 15–17</ref>

====Conservatoire====
[[File:Theatre du Conservatoire Paris CNSAD.jpg|thumb|left|Part of the [[Conservatoire de Paris|Paris Conservatoire]], where Bizet studied from 1848 to 1857 (photographed in 2009)]]
Bizet was admitted to the Conservatoire on 9 October 1848, two weeks before his 10th birthday.<ref name= D2/> He made an early impression; within six months he had won first prize in solfège, a feat that impressed [[Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman]], the Conservatoire's former professor of piano. Zimmerman gave Bizet private lessons in [[counterpoint]] and [[fugue]], which continued until the old man's death in 1853.<ref name=OMO>{{cite dictionary|last=Macdonald|first=Hugh|author-link=Hugh Macdonald (musicologist)|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/51829?q=Georges+Bizet&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1|title=Bizet, Georges (Alexandre-César-Léopold)|dictionary=Oxford Music Online|access-date=18 September 2011}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Through these classes, Bizet met Zimmerman's son-in-law, the composer [[Charles Gounod]], who became a lasting influence on the young pupil's musical style—although their relationship was often strained in later years.<ref>Dean (1965), p. 6</ref> He also met another of Gounod's young students, the 13-year-old [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], who remained a firm friend of Bizet's. Under the tuition of [[Antoine François Marmontel]], the Conservatoire's professor of piano, Bizet's pianism developed rapidly; he won the Conservatoire's second prize for piano in 1851, and first prize the following year. Bizet would later write to Marmontel: "In your class one learns something besides the piano; one becomes a musician".<ref>Curtiss, p. 21</ref>
[[File:Gounod-Bayard.png|alt=photograph of man in early middle age, balding, with neat moustache and beard|thumb|upright|[[Charles Gounod]], a mentor and inspiration to Bizet in the latter's Conservatoire years]]
Bizet's first preserved compositions, two wordless songs for [[soprano]], date from around 1850. In 1853, he joined [[Fromental Halévy]]'s composition class and began to produce works of increasing sophistication and quality.<ref>Dean (1965), pp. 7–8</ref> Two of his songs, "Petite Marguerite" and "La Rose et l'abeille", were published in 1854.<ref>Dean (1965), pp. 153, 266–267</ref> In 1855, he wrote an ambitious overture for a large orchestra,<ref>Dean (1965), pp. 138–39, 262–63</ref> and prepared four-hand piano versions of two of Gounod's works: the opera ''[[La nonne sanglante]]'' and the Symphony in D. Bizet's work on the Gounod symphony inspired him, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, to write [[Symphony in C (Bizet)|his own symphony]], which bore a close resemblance to Gounod's—note for note in some passages. Bizet never published the symphony, which came to light again only in 1933, and was finally performed in 1935.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 38–39</ref>

In 1856, Bizet competed for the prestigious [[Prix de Rome]]. His entry was not successful, but nor were any of the others; the musician's prize was not awarded that year.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 39–40</ref> After this rebuff, Bizet entered an opera competition which [[Jacques Offenbach]] had organised for young composers, with a prize of 1,200 [[franc#French franc|francs]]. The challenge was to set the one-act [[libretto]] of ''[[Le docteur Miracle]]'' by Léon Battu and [[Ludovic Halévy]]. The prize was awarded jointly to Bizet and [[Charles Lecocq]],<ref>Dean (1965), p. 9</ref> a compromise which years later Lecocq criticised on the grounds of the jury's manipulation by Fromental Halévy in favour of Bizet.{{refn|Lecocq wrote: "Bizet's score was not bad, but rather heavy, and he failed with almost all of the little couplets I was able to bring off". Mina Curtiss suggests that this pique reflected Lecocq's general disappointment with a career in which theatrical success largely eluded him.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 41–42</ref>|group= n}} As a result of his success, Bizet became a regular guest at Offenbach's Friday evening parties, where among other musicians he met the aged [[Gioachino Rossini]], who presented the young man with a signed photograph.<ref name= D10>Dean (1965), pp. 10–11</ref>{{refn|Although Bizet was initially flattered to be part of Offenbach's circle, and relished the contacts he made at the Friday gatherings, he became resentful of the hold which the older composer had established over French musical theatre, and grew contemptuous of his music. In a letter to [[Paul Lacombe (composer)|Paul Lacombe]] in 1871 Bizet refers to "the ever-increasing invasion of that infernal Offenbach", and dismisses Offenbach's work as "trash" and "this obscenity".<ref>Curtiss, pp. 311–312</ref>|group= n}} Bizet was a great admirer of Rossini's music, and wrote not long after their first meeting that "Rossini is the greatest of them all, because like Mozart, he has all the virtues".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Curtiss|first= Mina|title= Bizet, Offenbach, and Rossini|journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|volume= 40|issue= 3|date= July 1954|pages= 350–359 | jstor = 740074|doi=10.1093/mq/xl.3.350}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

For his 1857 Prix de Rome entry, Bizet, with Gounod's enthusiastic approval, chose to set the [[cantata]] ''Clovis et Clotilde'' by Amédée Burion. Bizet was awarded the prize after a ballot of the members of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] overturned the judges' initial decision, which was in favour of the oboist Charles Colin. Under the terms of the award, Bizet received a financial grant for five years, the first two to be spent in Rome, the third in Germany and the final two in Paris. The only other requirement was the submission each year of an "envoi", a piece of original work to the satisfaction of the Académie. Before his departure for Rome in December 1857, Bizet's prize cantata was performed at the Académie to an enthusiastic reception.<ref name= D10/><ref name= Curtiss48>Curtiss, pp. 48–50</ref>