Jacques Bizet was a French physician and businessman best known for his long friendship with novelist Marcel Proust. He was the son of composer Georges Bizet, who died when the boy was three and before his works gained success. His mother was Geneviève Halévy, who became known as a literary hostess.

Georges Bizet was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.