Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Bizet’s corpus of writings is almost non-existent. If in 1860, he considered writing for a musical revue, he only had the occasion to do so seven years later in La Revue nationale et étrangère. Only one causerie musicale (‘musical chat’) was published under a pseudonym. Bizet preferred to give up the column rather than submit to the censorship that a new editor announced they would impose on his future projects.

Four series of short manuscripts compiled Bizet’s notes on his travels and readings during a journey through Italy in 1859 and 186, but nothing in these suggests that he every seriously considered keeping a diary or writing his memoirs. Most of his writing therefore is found in correspondence, a complete edition of which is currently under preparation by Hervé Lacombe and Thierry Bodin. Several earlier, partial volumes of letters were published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Lettres à un ami 1865-1872, edited by Edmond Galabert, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1909 ; Lettres de Georges Bizet : impressions de Rome (1857-1860). La Commune (1871), edited by Louis Ganderax, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1907.

Emmanuel REIBEL

05/01/2017