THE OPERA "CARMEN" AND ITS COMPOSER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 80

THE OPERA "CARMEN" AND ITS COMPOSER.

Few operas have been performed more often or with greater suoee-ss than Bizet's "Carmen." At tl.e Opera Oomique in Paris it is about to ho played for the 1000 th occasion. Yet when it was first produced it was a dead failure. It was considered too eccentric and too audacious for the traditions of the lighter French opera house. In "Les Annales" there is a short article upon this subject. Its want of success, apparently, seriously affected Bizet's health. He had hoped so much, and the result was an indifferent and meagre public. "Carmen" wa? not actually his death blow, but it certainly helped to lower vitality and to make tho lursineas of dyhi'g physically more easy. He died, still a young man, on the evening of the thirty-third performance, June 2, 1875.

— An Inexplicable Apprehens'-on. —

The day before Bizet had been full of renewed hope and courage. Going to the theatre, he had expressed his gratitude at tho way his opera was sung and produced, and had seemed proud at the recognition it had received from other composers and musicians. "The audience don't peem to be crazy about my mus'c," he had said, laughing. "Put, you s°e, presently they will go mad about it. My first opera had a run of three nighte ; my second had a run of eight. This has lasted 33. lam getting on. Success is coming." A new "Opera was already in his head. But the very next evening, while Carmen herself was seeing, tragicdestiny in the cards, a sudden, hopeless illness had seized poor George Bizet. Nothing could be done, and he died in the presence of his wife and li^le son. Apropos of 1-is death, there is a slight but curious incident. The whole of the evening the Carmen of that period, Madame Galli-Marie, -wa. haunted br f.n unaccountable sense of impending disaster As she sang, the music seemed to fill and shake her with extraordinary misery. She left tho stage inexplicably disturbed and apprehensive, though quit© unaware still that Biz-ei was not perfectly well.

— Decorated Through a Mistake. —

He was not at any time a lucky man. He was even decorated through a mistake. It was the day before the production of "Carmen." Already there were rumours that ifc cotild not succeed, and his friends, afraid that failure would destroy his chances of nomination, determined to try and get him the little bit of red ribbon —before "Carmen." One of them went to the Minister. " Sir, a number of influential people have the honour to beg you for the cross for Monsieur George Bizet.'' "Who is Monsieur Bizet?"

" A remarkable genius, who has already produced several extraordinarily fine works. Amon? them the most popular, perhaps, ia ' L'Ai'lesienne.' " " 'L'Arleoienne?' " interrupted the Minister ; "why. it is a perfectly fascinating book. I read it with extreme pleasure. Tell your friends that, the thing is done." And George Bizot was decorated because the Minister, who was not musical, had happened to have read and enjoyed a novel by Monsieur Alphonse Daudet.— T. P.'s Weekly.