had gone in command of a commercial expedition (16th December 1873).
BIZERTA (properly pronounced Ben Zert; Fr. Bizerte), a
seaport of Tunisia, in 37° 17′ N., 9° 50′ E. Pop. about 12,000.
Next to Toulon, Bizerta is the most important naval port of
France in the Mediterranean. It occupies a commanding
strategical position in the narrowest part of the sea, being 714 m.
E. of Gibraltar, 1168 m. W.N.W. of Port Said, 240 m. N.W. of
Malta, and 420 m. S. by E. of Toulon. It is 60 m. by rail N.N.W.
of Tunis. The town is built on the shores of the Mediterranean
at the point where the Lake of Bizerta enters the sea through a
natural channel, the mouth of which has been canalized. The
modern town lies almost entirely on the north side of the canal.
A little farther north are the ancient citadel, the walled “Arab”
town and the old harbour (disused). The present outer harbour
covers about 300 acres and is formed by two converging jetties
and a breakwater. The north jetty is 4000 ft. long, the east
jetty 3300 ft., and the breakwater—which protects the port from
the prevalent north-east winds—2300 ft. long. The entrance to
the canal is in the centre of the outer harbour. The canal is
2600 ft. long and 787 ft. wide on the surface. Its banks are
lined with quays, and ships drawing 26 ft. of water can moor
alongside. At the end of the canal is a large commercial
harbour, beyond which the channel opens into the lake—in
reality an arm of the sea—roughly circular in form and covering
about 50 sq. m., two-thirds of its waters having a depth of 30
to 40 ft. The lake, which merchant vessels are not allowed
to enter, contains the naval port and arsenal. There is a
torpedo and submarine boat station on the north side of the
channel at the entrance to the lake, but the principal naval
works are at Sidi Abdallah at the south-west corner of the
lake and 10 m. from the open sea. Here is an enclosed basin
covering 123 acres with ample quayage, dry docks and everything
necessary to the accommodation, repair, revictualling and
coaling of a numerous fleet. Barracks, hospitals and waterworks
have been built, the military town, called Ferryville,
being self-contained.
Fortifications have been built for the protection of the port. They comprise (a) the older works surrounding the town; (b) a group of coast batteries on the high ground of Cape Bizerta or Guardia, 4 m. north-north-west of the town; these are grouped round a powerful fort called Jebel Kebir, and have a command of 300 to 800 ft. above sea-level; (c) another group of batteries on the narrow ground between the sea and the lake to the east of the town; the highest of these is the Jebel Tuila battery 265 ft. above sea-level.
The Lake of Bizerta, called Tinja by the Arabs, abounds in excellent fish, especially mullets, the dried roe of which, called botargo, is largely exported, and the fishing industry employs a large proportion of the inhabitants. The western shore of the lake is low, and in many places is covered with olive trees to the water’s edge. The south-eastern shores are hilly and wooded, and behind them rises a range of picturesque hills. A narrow and shallow channel leads from the western side of the lake into another sheet of water, the Lake of Ishkul, so called from Jebel Ishkul, a hill on its southern bank 1740 ft. high. The Lake of Ishkul is nearly as large as the first lake, but is very shallow. Its waters are generally sweet.
Bizerta occupies the site of the ancient Tyrian colony, Hippo Zarytus or Diarrhytus, the harbour of which, by means of a spacious pier, protecting it from the north-east wind, was rendered one of the safest and finest on this coast. The town became a Roman colony, and was conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century. The place thereafter was subject either to the rulers of Tunis or of Constantine, but the citizens were noted for their frequent revolts. They threw in their lot (c. 1530) with the pirate Khair-ed-Din, and subsequently received a Turkish garrison. Bizerta was captured by the Spaniards in 1535, but not long afterwards came under the Tunisian government. Centuries of neglect followed, and the ancient port was almost choked up, though the value of the fisheries saved the town from utter decay. Its strategical importance was one of the causes which led to the occupation of Tunisia by the French in 1881. In 1890 a concession for a new canal and harbour was granted to a company, and five years later the new port was formally opened. Since then the canal has been widened and deepened, and the naval port at Sidi Abdallah created.
BIZET [Alexandre César Léopold] GEORGES (1838–1875),
French musical composer, was born at Bougival, near Paris, on
the 25th of October 1838, the son of a singing-master. He
displayed musical ability at an early age, and was sent to the
Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Halévy and speedily
distinguished himself, carrying off prizes for organ and fugue,
and finally in 1857, after an ineffectual attempt in the previous
year, the Grand Prix de Rome for a cantata called Cloris et
Clotilde. A success of a different kind also befell him at this time.
Offenbach, then manager of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens,
had organized a competition for an operetta, in which young
Bizet was awarded the first prize in conjunction with Charles
Lecocq, each of them writing an operetta called Docteur Miracle.
After the three years spent in Rome, an obligation imposed by
the French government on the winners of the first prize at the
Conservatoire, Bizet returned to Paris, where he achieved a
reputation as a pianist and accompanist. On the 23rd of
September 1863 his first opera, Les Pêcheurs de perles, was
brought out at the Théâtre Lyrique, but owing possibly to the
somewhat uninteresting nature of the story, the opera did not
enjoy a very long run. The qualities displayed by the composer,
however, were amply recognized, although the music was stated,
by some critics, to exhibit traces of Wagnerian influence.
Wagnerism at that period was a sort of spectre that haunted the
imagination of many leading members of the musical press. It
sufficed for a work to be at all out of the common for the epithet
“Wagnerian” to be applied to it. The term, it may be said,
was intended to be condemnatory, and it was applied with little
understanding as to its real meaning. The score of the Pêcheurs
de perles contains several charming numbers; its dreamy
melodies are well adapted to fit a story laid in Eastern climes,
and the music reveals a decided dramatic temperament. Some
of its dances are now usually introduced into the fourth act of
Carmen.
On the 3rd of June 1865 Bizet married a daughter of his old master, Halévy. His second opera, La Jolie Fille de Perth, produced at the Théâtre Lyrique on 26th December 1867, was scarcely a step in advance. The libretto was founded on Sir Walter Scott’s novel, but the opera lacks unity of style, and its pages are marred by concessions to the vocalist. One number has survived, the characteristic Bohemian dance which has been interpolated into the fourth act of Carmen. In his third opera Bizet returned to an oriental subject. Djamileh, a one-act opera given at the Opéra Comique on the 22nd of May 1872, is certainly one of his most individual efforts. Again were accusations of Wagnerism hurled at the composer’s head, and Djamileh did not achieve the success it undoubtedly deserved. The composer was more fortunate with the incidental music he wrote to Alphonse Daudet’s drama, L’Arlésienne, produced in October 1872. Different numbers from this, arranged in the form of suites, have often been heard in the concert-room. Rarely have poetry and imagination been so well allied as in these exquisite pages, which seem to reflect the sunny skies of Provence.
Bizet’s masterpiece, Carmen, was brought out at the Opéra Comique on the 3rd of March 1875. It was based on a version by Meilhac and Halévy of a study by Prosper Mérimée—in which the dramatic element was obscured by much descriptive writing. The detection of the drama underlying this psychological narrative was in itself a brilliant discovery, and in reconstructing the story in dramatic form the authors produced one of the most famous libretti in the whole range of opera. Still more striking than the libretto was the music composed by Bizet, in which the peculiar use of the flute and of the lowest notes of the harp deserves particular attention.
On the 3rd of June, three months after the production of Carmen in Paris, the genial composer expired after a few hours’ illness from a heart affection. Before dying he had the satisfaction
