Gioachino Antonio Rossini - French Composer

Georges Bizet (25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era. He is best known for the opera Carmen. His first symphony, the Symphony in C Major, was written in November 1855, when he was just seventeen, evidently as a student assignment. It was unknown to the world until 1933, when it was discovered in the archives of the Paris Conservatory library. 

Carmen (1875) is Bizet's best-known work and is based on a novella of the same title written in 1846 byProsper Mérimée. Bizet composed the title role for a mezzo-soprano. It was substantially composed during the summer of 1873, but not finished until the end of 1874, during which time his marriage came under severe strain and he separated from his wife for two months. Carmen premiered on 3 March 1875, and was not initially well-received, although it ran for 48 performances; it was Bizet's greatest success so far. Praise for it eventually came from well-known contemporaries including Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky. Brahms attended over twenty performances of it, and considered it the greatest opera produced in Europe since the Franco-Prussian War. The views of these composers proved to be prophetic, as Carmen has since become one of the most popular works in the entire operatic repertoire. Bizet's most famous songs are the "Habanera" and "The Toreador's Song", both from Carmen.

However, Bizet did not live to see Carmen's success. He died from a heart attack at the age of 36 in Bougival, about 10 miles west of Paris. His death occurred on his sixth wedding anniversary, exactly three months after Carmen'sfirst performance. He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.