Bizet, Georges, originally Alexandre C�sare L�opold 1838-75
French composer

Born in Paris, he studied at the Conservatoire there under Ludovic Hal�vy, whose daughter he married in 1869, and in Italy. Although he won the Prix de Rome in 1857 with Le Docteur Miracle ('Doctor Miracle'), his efforts to achieve a reputation as an operatic composer with such works as Les P�cheurs de Perles (1863, 'The Pearl-Fishers') and La Jolie fille de Perth (1867, 'The Fair Maid of Perth') were largely unsuccessful. His charming incidental music to Daudet's play L'Arl�sienne (1872, 'The Maid of Arles') was successful and survived in the form of two orchestral suites. Bizet's reputation is based on these and on the four-act opera Carmen, completed just before his death of heart disease, although Les P�cheurs and La Jolie fille have enjoyed recent revivals. Carmen proved too robust at first for French taste, but its delicate orchestration and operatic intensity have ensured its current popularity.