Valse menuet georges bizet biography

Bizet's family was immersed in music, his father a singing teacher and his mother a fine pianist. Georges showed musical talent when very young, and through the influence of his mother's brother François Delsart, a well-known singer, was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine where he was taught by Antoine-François Marmontel.

Standards at the Conservatoire at that time were not universally high, and of all those who taught Bizet between 1848 and 1657 only Marmontel, Fromental Halévy and Charles Gounod inspired him.

In 1855 Bizet, just 17 years old, wrote his first symphony, the Symphony in C, in six weeks: it bears the marks of his fascination with Gounod's music, but its vitality and sound palette are equally revealing of Bizet's own strong musical personality.

In 1857, in response to a competition organized by Jacques Offenbach who was looking for new material for his Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Bizet comp