GEORGES BIZET.• In Bizet, as in Berlioz, Frenchmen have learnt

to feel a legiti- mate pride, largely tempered by remorse. Neither was able to extort full recognition from his countrymen during his life- time; but whilst Berlioz had at least the consolation afforded by winning laurels throughout the length and breadth of Germany,

as well as by the secure conviction, expressed in his Memoirs, that if he lived to be one hundred and forty, his reputation would be all that he could desire, Bizet carried with him to the grave a cruel uncertainty as to the fate of a work destined to render him immortal. Incredible as it seems to us now, Carmen, in spite of brilliant colouring, warmth, and dramatic intensity, fell flat before a Parisian public in 1875 ; nor was it until it had been "acclaimed by both hemispheres "—until, as the statistics prepared at Berlin in 1883 prove, the number of its representations exceeded those of the masterpieces of Wagner and Weber combined—that Paris bethought herself of a revival. Never was a more apt illustration furnished of Jules janin's saying,—" Nous ne reprenons pas lea chefs-d'muvre, ce sent les chefs-d'onivre qui nous reprennent" It took eight years for Carmen to conquer that public who had accorded it an icy reception on its first production ; but the victory this time was all along the line, and 260 performances have not yet exhausted the enthusiasm of the audiences at the Op6ra Comique. Its extraordinary popularity in England is beat proved by the fact that, in a vernacular version of singular ineptitude, it remains by far the most attractive piece in Mr. Carl Rosa's repertory. " Is yon building," asks Zuniga, in recitative, " the factory at which young girls are employed at cigarette.making P" And Don Jos6 replies,—" It is, Captain, 'tie there ! a reckless crew are they, whom you shortly will see through yonder gate come swarming." "They have youth," remarks Zuniga; "say, have they beauty P" " I cannot say," returns Don lose ; " they may be fair, but for them I don't care, I think but of my duty." Fortunately, the literary shortcomings of the translation are unable to neutralise the charm of the music and the interest of the story. This same popularity, however, has caused some critics to look with suspicion on the music of Carmen. In the spirit of the Roman lover who wished that his mistress might seem fair to him alone, adding, Displiceas aliis sic ego tutus ere, these purists will not allow themselves to applaud that which delights the profane crowd. Such persons—who generally judge of Carmen from the " Habanera" and the refrain of the Toreador's song—would be dismayed to find that the vox populi in this instance is the vox Dime, and that the verdict of the masses is strikingly confirmed by that of orchestral performers,— by whose judgment Berlioz rightly set such store,—as well as by distinguished conductors and adherents of the classical school.

Georges Bizet, who was born in 1838, gave early proof of the bent which he inherited from both his parents. At nine, his father, unable to teach him any farther, induced the authorities at the Conservatoire to make an exception in his favour, and

• thorass Bii.t at son CCuort. Par Charles Pight. Paris : Dents.

admithim, though under age. Here his talent soon brought him to the front, and coming under Zimmermann's instruction for the pianoforte, he came into contact with Gounod, Zimmer- mann's deputy, with whom he remained on terms of lifelong intimacy. At fourteen, he gained a first prize for pianoforte- playing, and already showed a mastery of the gift of reading at sight which Berlioz pointedly acknowledged ten years later in the Vitals, calling him an incomparable sight-reader from full scores. He took a first prize for organ-playing in 1855; was placed

second for the Grand Prix de Rome in 1856 ; was bracketed first with Lecocq in a contest instituted by Offenbach, then Director of the Bouffes-Parisiens, with an operetta entitled Docteur Miracle, in the spring of 1857 ; and in the autumn achieved the summit of the ambition—too often, also, the limit of success—

of all French musical students, by winning the blue-riband of the year, the Grand Prix de Rome,—a scholarship entailing two years' residence in the Eternal City. Before he left Paris, Carafe, gave him a letter to Mercadante, the doyen of Italian composers, then living at Naples. Bizet never used the letter, but was greatly amused on opening it to find the following sentence, :— "I cordially recommend the bearer, M. Bizet, to you. He is a charming young fellow worthy of all sympathy ; but between ourselves, he hasn't a spark of talent." Rome neither disgusted Bizet, as it disgusted Berlioz some thirty years earlier, nor did its delights enervate him, though he compares them to those of Capna. The first evidence of his industry was not the statutory Mass, but an Italian opera-bouffe, Don Procopio, upon which Ambroise Thomas reported encouragingly, while adminis- tering a gentle rebuke for the unorthodox character of the exer- cise. The score, however, shared the fate of a similar envoi of Gounod's. It was relegated to the shelves of the Institute and loot.

Bizet was so reluctant to quit Rome, that he contrived to induce the authorities to extend the period of his stay for another year.

A great friend, Gairaud, had just gained the Grand Prix, and the prospect of his company was another potent motive for delaying his return. A descriptive symphony, with choruses, " Vasco di Gama," and two movements of an orchestral suite, were composed during the latter part of his stay, and so, after three years' absence, he returned to Paris to embark on the hard struggle for existence to which all young composers without fortune are exposed. Too busy, as a rule, to complain

of the hardships of his lot, Bizet once summed up his career in

the touching sentences, full of unconscious prophecy, which close his sole contribution to the domain of musical criticism. They were written in 1867, and run as follows :—" In truth composers are the pariahs, the martyrs of modern society. Like the gladiators of old, they fall crying, Salve, popule, morituri to salutant Oh, Music ! what a splendid art, but what a melan- choly profession !"

Mortification at the failure of Carmen may well have hastened his death ; but it was the fifteen years of overwork which this volume narrates which really killed Bizet. At the out- set of his career, he did a great deal of hack-work for publishers, transcribing for the piano, scoring dance-music, dte., besides giving lessons, while he devoted all his scanty leisure to original composition. He had actually written a one-act opera for his formal debut at the Op6ra Comique, but withdrew and destroyed it when Carvalho, on the strength of a liberal subsidy from the outgoing Minister of Fine Arts, commissioned him to write a three-act opera to the poem of The Pearl-Fishers, by MM.

Carr6 and Cormon. This poem, according to Bizet's biographer, is only redeemed from puerility by a few strong situations ; but it served the purpose of firing Bizet's imagination with the visions of the East which it evoked, and which, by the aid of intuition rather than research, he translated into music glowing with true Oriental charm. The Pearl-Fishers, produced in September, 1863, was heard more with sur- prise than pleasure, and only reached eighteen performances.

After a lapse of above twenty years, The Pearl-Fishers, converted into an Italian opera, has achieved a remarkable success on the Continent, and during the month of April this year was played several times to appreciative audiences at Covent Garden Theatre. Berlioz alone among contemporary critics re- cognised the composer's genius, and warmly praised the warmth and breadth of his score; while his colleagues, adopting a patronis-

ing tone, recommended the young writer to try opera comique. Bizet's next essay was a five-act opera, Ivan the Terrible, com- posed in an access of enthusiasm for Verdi, and on the lines and forme of that master. But although the piece was actually accepted at the Lyrique, second thoughts induced him to with-

draw a work which might have compromised his reputation, and the score seems to have formed part of the auto da fe made a few months before his death of all the manuscripts which did not satisfy Bizet's fastidious taste. Emancipated from this transient influence, he set to work on a symphony, only to give it up again when Carvalho engaged him to write a four-act opera to a libretto founded on Scott's Fair Maid of Perth. Meantime, he had to gain his living by the menial occupation described above, and in one letter he tells a friend with great humour how he returned to his opera between the task of scoring two pieces of dance-music, and revenged himself for the interruption by the surpassing vulgarity of his instrumentation. In another letter, belonging to the same period, 1866, he says :—" I am off to bed, my dear friend ; I haven't slept these three nights and I have to write some gay music to-morrow." Working con- stantly at the rate of fifteen and sixteen hours a day, and with feverish rapidity, he managed to finish his opera by the end of the year. Vexations delays intervened, owing to the critical state of the affairs of the theatre, and the work was not pro- duced for a full year after its completion. This time the Press was cordial, bat the public cold, and the opera only ran for twenty-one nights. Although marked by a certain spirit of compromise, and occasional concessions to conventional taste, the work still disconcerted the audience by its originality. The cast was competent, and the libretto skilfully contrived on the whole, though lacking in the fine, breezy atmosphere of the original. It is rather amusing to read how a carnival scene at Perth is interpolated in the opera ; still more so to find Bizet'a biographer praising him for his truth to Nature in not infusing a Southern colour into this scene, but breathing over it " a vague, splenetic perfume," befitting the characters of those engaged in it. Bnt it is only fair to add that M. Pigot denounces the absurdity of intro- ducing the Duke of Rothsay amongst the revellers, under the self-styled title of " Grand Duke of Acrobats, King of Capers."

In August, 1867, Bizet appeared for the first and last time in the capacity of a critic, with a contribution to the columns of the Revue Nationale, recently started on a new footing. In this paper, from which M. Pigot gives copious extracts, Bizet formulates the principles which shall guide him in his criticisms, and after deriding those who would divide music into endless schools, administers a very sound castigation to pedantic and partial critics. He is especially severe on the former. "I have a horror," he says, " of pedantry and false erudition. Certain third and fourth-rate critics use and abuse a so-called tech- nical jargon, as unintelligible to themselves as to the public." From reasons which have not transpired, Bizet's connection with the Revue Nationale ceased with the first number. In the following year, Bizet was engaged in the pious duty of completing the unfinished score of Noe, an opera by Haldvy, his master, whose daughter he married in the summer of the fol- lowing year. About this time, also, he reduced the operas of Mignon and Hamlet for the pianoforte, besides composing a couple of pieces for that instrument. A brilliant performer, he never appeared in public as a virtuoso, though in great request in more than one Parisian salon. To Carvalho he was of the greatest help, in playing at sight the scores of operas sent in for his consideration at the Lyrique. M. Pigot tells a striking anecdote of the display of this power on pp. 125-7, which, if it were not so positively vouched for, we should be almost inclined to regard as apocryphal. Liszt had played one of his latest compositions, bristling with difficulties, whereupon Bizet sat down and played the piece through, without faltering, from Liszt's manuscript copy, in such a way as to force the maestro to admit that he had been excelled by the younger man. The symphony over which he had spent two years of intermittent labour was now finished, and performed early in 1869, but passed unnoticed with the Press, though the public gave it a very mixed reception. By the end of the year, he had completed Noe, but innumerable difficulties hindered its production. The principal riles were too exacting for any of the singers at the Lyrique, and the opera, shelved during Bizet's lifetime, did not see the light until 1835, at Carlsrnhe. Then came Djamiieh, a one-act opera, founded on De Masset's Namouna, and foredoomed to failure by the unnatural psychological motive of the story. The opera was inadequately represented, yet Bizet was not dissatisfied. The Press were, on the whole, kindly, though the charge of Wagnerism—a regular shirt of Nessus in Bizet's case, according to M. Pigot—was once more renewed. Djaraileh was only given ten times, the last performance taking place on June 29th, 1872, little more than three months before the production of L'ArlAsienne, a play of Provençal life, to which Bizet contributed twenty-four numbers of incidental music. It is worthy of remark that Bizet had only caught a glimpse of Provence on his way to Rome fourteen years before, and yet, by just such another intuition as had enabled him to project himself and his hearers into the East, he now illustrated Daudet's scenes with such truth of accent and local colour that the Southerners at once adopted him as their favourite composer. The Press on this occasion were unanimous in praise of Bizet's share in the work ; but in spite of the exquisite beauty of the music, the play as a whole was not a success, Daudet's remarkable gifts as a novelist proving no guarantee for his success in drama, and after fifteen performances it was withdrawn. The skill and beauty of Bizet's score will be better understood when it is remembered that the orchestral resources which be commanded only consisted of twenty-six players. L' Arlhienne was revived with considerable success at the Oddon in 1885, and the orchestral suite of the four principal numbers has, after Carmen, achieved a wider popularity than any other of his works. It is worth mentioning that the beautiful chorus of peasants in F sharp minor, reduced to a solo, figures, under the title of "Pastorale," as No. 9 in his collected songs. In 1873, a "Petite Suite d'Orchestre," originally written for pianoforte, and in 1874, an overture, entitled "Petrie," were performed with some success ; and finally, in March, 1875, his last and greatest work, Carmen, was produced at the Opdra Comique. The verdict of the " first-night " audience was undeniably adverse, and it was confirmed by the Press. To explain this want of perception on the part of his countrymen, M. Pigot is forced to admit "noun 'lemma rdfractaires l'admiration sincere et spontande ;" and adds that the Parisians seem to possess the melancholy privilege of suffering from such "momentary eclipses of taste." The charge of immorality— which possibly had its origin in the reaction displayed in the early years of the Republic against the corruptness of the Empire, and which was undoubtedly fomented by the indiscreet utterances of Du Lode, the manager of the theatre—no doubt contributed to prejudice Bizet's chances of success. For our own part, we cordially endorse the protest made by Bizet's bio- grapher against this charge, and which concludes with the words : —"A work of art is never unwholesome because it addresses itself to the heart and not the intellect, because it speaks to what is noble and elevated at the root of our frail human nature. In art it is the abortive, the mediocre, which is immoral,—that which destroys an illusion, blasts a belief or a poem. Orphge aux Infers and La Belle Helene are immoral, not Carmen." On the divergences of the libretto —a singularly well-contrived one—from Merimde's novel, we need not dwell further than to remind the readers that the character of Micada, " the only figure to which the sympathies of the spectators can be legitimately attached," was the creation of the librettists, who developed her out of a sentence at the outset of Jose's narrative. Of the score itself, M. Pigot gives a fall and enthusiastic analysis, abounding in interesting details. For example, we learn that the "Habanera" was written while the piece was actually in rehearsal. Galli-Marid was dissatisfied with the number as it originally stood, and Bizet, after a dozen efforts, at last chanced upon a Spaniels air, which he adapted to the needs of the situation. Bizet died suddenly in the night of June 2nd- 3rd, 1875, when Carmen had been played thirty-three times. After four more performances, the piece was withdrawn, to be revived in the autumn more as a gracious homage to the memory of its amiable author, than from the conviction of its merit. There were thirteen further performances, and then an interval of eight years elapsed, during which, on every operatic stage in Europe and America, the work was heard with ever- growing success. Meantime, Paris had recovered from her fit of prudishness, and having become accustomed to the neo- logisms of modern composers, burnt with curiosity to hear and judge Carmen from the standpoint of a more catholic taste. So finally the revival took place, and Bizet's reputation was rehabilitated by his admiring and regretful countrymen.

Taming lastly to the manner in which M. Pigot has achieved his task, we have to notice that this memoir, though valuable and interesting, is marred by occasional outbursts of partisan feeling. We admire and share his enthusiasm for Bizet, while we deprecate his attitude towards those who, failing fully to appreciate Bizet, have had the courage to adhere to their con- victions. The story of Carafe's letter is spoiled by the gratuitous insertion of sundry details as to the antecedents of that com- poser. In another passage there is a quite uncalled-for dis- paragement of M. Ambroise Thomas. In the descriptions of Bizet's music, certain words recur with a wearisome iteration, while the frequent employment of phrases like " pauvre grand artiste," " cher grand artiste," grate on our insular ears. But, with all deductions, we are deeply grateful to M. Pigot for giving us so full and detailed an account of a composer to whom, in common with thousands of others, we owe the swift passage of many delightful evenings.