La jolie fille de Perth is an opera in four acts by Georges Bizet (1838–1875), from a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jules Adenis, after the 1828 novel The Fair Maid of Perth by Sir Walter Scott. Many writers have reserved severe criticism for the librettists for their stock devices and improbable events, while praising Bizet's advance on his earlier operas in construction of set pieces and his striking melodic and instrumental ideas.
Bizet in 1875
Cathérine, costume design by Luigi Bartezago
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.
Bizet photographed by Étienne Carjat (1875)
Part of the Paris Conservatoire, where Bizet studied from 1848 to 1857 (photographed in 2009)
The Villa Medici, the official home of the French Académie in Rome since 1803
The Théâtre Historique in Paris, one of the homes of the Théâtre Lyrique company, pictured in 1862