Travel tips for opera lovers – Bougival near Paris and Bizet

Bizet in Bougival

The series about historical places of opera art. Get to know exciting excursion and travel ideas for opera lovers. This time: Bizet in Bougival.

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Bizet in Bougival

Bizet rented a house in Bougival to compose his “Carmen” in peace. However, the composition history of Carmen was anything but quiet, the house even became his death house, more about this in the digression below.

TO THE OVERVIEW OF ALL DESTINATIONS “OPERA & CLASSIC OF PARIS“.

Destination Death house in Bougival

The house is located directly on the Seine and Bizet, who was ill with angina, swam there, which hastened his death in this house. The future of the house is unclear, the municipality has so far managed to prevent its sale and is trying to create a music center out of it. Donations are welcome.
There is a plaque on the wall of this picturesque house.

Bizet’s house in Bougival:

https://www.tourisme-bougival.com/en/visit-bougival/georges-bizets-house/

Musical Background: Bizet’s troubled end of life in Bougival

Bizet is 34 years old when he decides to use Prosper Mérimée’s novel «Carmen» as the literary source for a new opera. He is fascinated by the gypsy Carmen, who wraps all men around her finger. He secretly observes his wife, whom he takes as inspiration for Carmen. Geneviève is a sophisticated person; she loves beautiful clothes and will later be immortalized in a novel by Marcel Proust. And, she is the secret lover of Élie-Miriam Delaborde, the best friend of her husband.

Delaborde is a dazzling personality. He is the illegitimate son of the famous piano virtuoso Charles Alkan is a gifted musician and painter. He is an athlete and womanizer. Like many artists, he also has quirks. He shares his bedroom with two monkeys and when he must flee to London during the Franco-Prussian War, he takes his 120 parrots with him. Bizet probably knows about his wife’s relationship, but he is too busy with his «Carmen», which will soon be performed in the Opéra Comique in Paris. The troubles started during the preparations of the premiere. When the leading soprano reads the libretto, she almost faints. She categorically refuses to play such a scandalous person. An alternative is found in the person of Célestine Galli-Marié. She is a charming person and has a lovely quirk. She likes to take stuffed animals to rehearsals. That sounds sweet. But as an artist she is hard as nails. «Mr. Bizet, I don’t like the aria at my first appearance. May I ask you to change that».  She drives Bizet mad. 13 times he must rewrite this scene until the diva Galli-Marié is happy. Meanwhile, the opera director stands no longer behind the work: «Mérimée’s Carmen? Is she not killed by her lover? And this milieu of thieves, gypsies and tobacco smugglers». The text seems too wicked to him, he fears a fiasco. Last but not least the choir singers are also displeased. They are used to singing in a semicircle with a firm look at the conductor. In Bizet’s production they are workers of the tobacco factory who smoke, or they are gypsies who dance. The choir goes on strike and Bizet is at the end of his nerves.

The day of the first performance comes. The tickets are sold out and the audience is excited. The first act is warmly received. But the longer the work lasts, the frostier the atmosphere becomes in the Opéra Comique.  It is too much for the conservative audience.  One critic writes about the leading actress: «To see her rocking her hips like a filly at a stud farm in Cordoba – what truth, but what a scandal». The New York Times also writs a devastating critique: «As a work of art, this opera is absolutely null and void». Only Tchaikovsky writes home: «And how wonderful this opera is! I am convinced that in ten years ‘Carmen’ will be the most popular opera in the world. »

And Bizet? He is down. He is heartbroken. «To be successful in our time, you have to be either dead or a German!». His heavy Angina, which has plagued him for many years, has flared up again. «I suffer like a dog. I have never had such pain before. It is terrible.»

Three months after the first performance, when he feels a little better, he does a swimming competition on Sunday in the River Seine with his friend Élie-Miriam Delaborde. That is too much for him and he suffers a severe relapse.

Three days later another performance of «Carmen» is scheduled.  In the gypsy scene where the Tarot cards are placed, Celestine Galli-Marié screams. Only with last of her strength she can finish the opera and she faints behind the stage. Galli-Marié, a passionate Tarot card reader, has seen the fate of Bizet in the cards, without knowing of Bizet’s poor health condition. The same night, George Bizet dies.

More about the opera “Carmen”:

CARMEN by Georges Bizet | ♪ Opera guide (opera-inside.com)