Editing Georges Bizet (section)

===Rome, 1858–1860===
[[File:Villa Medicis.jpg|thumb|The Villa Medici, the official home of the French Académie in Rome since 1803]]
On 27 January 1858, Bizet arrived at the [[Villa Medici]], a 16th-century palace that since 1803 had housed the French Académie in Rome and which he described in a letter home as "paradise".<ref>Curtiss, p. 53</ref> Under its director, the painter [[Jean-Victor Schnetz]], the villa provided an ideal environment in which Bizet and his fellow-laureates could pursue their artistic endeavours. Bizet relished the convivial atmosphere, and quickly involved himself in the distractions of its social life; in his first six months in Rome, his only composition was a ''[[Te Deum]]'' written for the Rodrigues Prize, a competition for a new religious work open to Prix de Rome winners. This piece failed to impress the judges, who awarded the prize to Adrien Barthe, the only other entrant.<ref>Dean (1965), pp. 15 and 21</ref> Bizet was discouraged to the extent that he vowed to write no more religious music. His ''Te Deum'' remained forgotten and unpublished until 1971.<ref>{{cite journal|author-link= Edward Greenfield|last= Greenfield|first= Edward|title= Bizet&nbsp;– Clovis et Clotilde. Te Deum|url= http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/the-new-gramophone-digital-archive |journal= Gramophone|date= February 2011}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

Through the winter of 1858–59, Bizet worked on his first envoi, an [[opera buffa]] setting of Carlo Cambiaggio's libretto ''[[Don Procopio]]''. Under the terms of his prize, Bizet's first envoi was supposed to be a mass, but after his ''Te Deum'' experience, he was averse to writing religious music. He was apprehensive about how this breach of the rules would be received at the Académie, but their response to ''Don Procopio'' was initially positive, with praise for the composer's "easy and brilliant touch" and "youthful and bold style".<ref name= OMO/><ref>Dean (1965), p. 24</ref>
[[File:Young Georges Bizet.png|thumb|left|upright|Georges Bizet photographed in about 1860]]
For his second envoi, not wishing to test the Académie's tolerance too far, Bizet proposed to submit a quasi-religious work in the form of a secular mass on a text by [[Horace]]. This work, entitled ''Carmen Saeculare'', was intended as a song to [[Apollo]] and [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]]. No trace exists, and it is unlikely that Bizet ever started it.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 94–95</ref> A tendency to conceive ambitious projects, only to quickly abandon them, became a feature of Bizet's Rome years; in addition to ''Carmen Saeculare'', he considered and discarded at least five opera projects, two attempts at a symphony, and a symphonic ode on the theme of [[Odysseus#Journey home to Ithaca|Ulysses and Circe]].<ref>Dean (1965), pp. 20, 260–266, 270–271</ref> After ''Don Procopio'', Bizet completed only one further work in Rome, the symphonic poem ''Vasco da Gama''. This replaced ''Carmen Saeculare'' as his second envoi, and was well received by the Académie, though swiftly forgotten thereafter.<ref name= C106>Curtiss, pp. 106–107</ref>

In the summer of 1859, Bizet and several companions travelled in the mountains and forests around [[Anagni]] and [[Frosinone]]. They also visited a convict settlement at [[Anzio]]; Bizet sent an enthusiastic letter to Marmontel, recounting his experiences.<ref>Dean (1965), p. 17</ref> In August, he made an extended journey south to [[Naples]] and [[Pompeii]], where he was unimpressed with the former but delighted with the latter: "Here you live with the ancients; you see their temples, their theatres, their houses in which you find their furniture, their kitchen utensils..."<ref>Curtiss, p. 88</ref> Bizet began sketching a symphony based on his Italian experiences, but made little immediate headway; the project, which became his [[Roma Symphony (Bizet)|''Roma'' symphony]], was not finished until 1868.<ref name= OMO/> On his return to Rome, Bizet successfully requested permission to extend his stay in Italy into a third year, rather than going to Germany, so that he could complete "an important work" (which has not been identified).<ref>Dean (1965), p. 19</ref> In September 1860, while visiting [[Venice]] with his friend and fellow-laureate [[Ernest Guiraud]], Bizet received news that his mother was gravely ill in Paris, and made his way home.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 97–106</ref>