CD Review | Bizet rarities on Bru Zane’s Portrait

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Georges Bizet: Portrait

Djamileh, Vasco de Gama, Le Retour de Virginie, Clovis et Clotilde, symphonic and choral music, music for piano and arias

Karina Gauvin (soprano), Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Adèle Charvet (mezzo), Julien Dran (tenor)

Bru Zane, 2025

Apparently Bizet didn’t write only Carmen … We might know Les pêcheurs de perles, among his lyrical works, but we’re less acquainted with La jolie fille de Perth or Le docteur Miracle, for example. Yet there is much to discover in this composer who over a short 20-year career wrote tirelessly in a variety of genres—arias, symphonies and piano works.

Tireless workers themselves, Palazzetto Bru Zane are marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death with a four-CD box set offering a well-rounded portrait thanks to a generous array of rare or even unknown works.

CD 1 contains the one-act opera Djamileh, which sits uneasily in the modern day repertoire thanks to its rather outdated exoticism. However, it has some subtly orchestrated passages and having been rarely recorded, is a pleasure to hear.

CD 2 is a chance to hear the extraordinary ‘ode-symphony’, Vasco de Gama. The title might be familiar because of the magnificent bolero, “La marguerite a fermé sa corolle,” beloved of sopranos and tenors, but the rest of the score is also worth hearing.

An absolute unknown is found on CD 3, a cantata entitled Le retour de Virginie. Bizet wrote this preparatory exercise for the Prix de Rome as an ambitious youngster of barely 18, and it is surprisingly inspired and competent. The composer never heard this score played.

A year later he won that prestigious prize which opened so many doors, when he submitted another cantata, Clovis et Clothide. This is on CD 4. It’s slightly better-known and has been recorded many times, once, memorably, with the voice of Montserrat Caballé. The version here features Quebec’s Karina Gauvin, full of panache and having the advantage of better-pronounced French than her predecessor.

To complete the portrait, three of the CDs end with arias that Bizet wrote for salons. They are performed by different singers, notably the mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet, who has a lovely quality of voice, though some of her colleagues are not so inspired. Other pieces belong to little-known genres, for example the choir with orchestra piece Le golfe de Baïa, which deserves a concert outing occasionally.

As a seasoned pianist who could have made a career as such, Bizet wrote high-quality pieces for piano. The best-known are the Variations chromatiques – which might also be called ‘enigmatic variations’! The previously unknown pieces recorded here include amazing piano compositions adapted from choral works by Charles Gounod, Bizet’s friend and mentor. They’re a pleasure to hear.

All this Carmen-less Bizet is an absolute feast. Never dull, rich in original ideas, this music by a composer who died too young at 36 will go on resounding in youthful eternity.

Translation: Cecilia Grayson