A Bizet Gala

Georges Bizet composed his Symphony in C major in 1855 when he was seventeen years old, but it was not heard in public until 80 years later, on 26 February 1935, thanks to the research carried out by Douglas Charles Parker. This orchestral gem, written in the tradition of Charles Gounod’s Symphony no. 1 in D, serves as the centrepiece of this gala, which brings Bizet face to face with his contemporaries – Ambroise Thomas, with the overture to Mignon (1866), Giuseppe Verdi, with excerpts from Don Carlos (1867) – while also featuring arias and a duet from Les Pêcheurs de perles (1863), an opera in which the Parisian composer displays wonderfully refined orchestration and an innate melodic charm. An opportunity to see that music during the Second French Empire was not limited to opérette.