Carmen

That's right.  We're going for a whole opera - that's how well-known Carmen is.  It's so well-known that people sometimes even know the name of the opera itself.  Besides which, most operas contain one really well-known piece; this one has three.  All in all, not bad for a composer who barely made it to 36 and never really saw success in his own lifetime.

Bizet at 11 - the beard was added posthumously.

This composer, of course, was Georges (Alexandre César Léopold) Bizet.  Born in Paris in 1838, he soon proved to be an adept pianist and all-around musician and was admitted to the Paris Conservatory of Music just shy of his tenth birthday.  He won the Prix de Rome (essentially a prize in which budding composers and musicians won grants to study in Rome for a year, hence the name) at the age of nineteen, and his early works showed great promise.  Unfortunately, it all sort of slid downhill from there - and not in a big, dramatic way (as when Stravinsky's Rite of Spring incited riots).  No, Bizet was plagued with the mantle of mediocrity for the rest of his short life, which is truly a shame, given the ubiquity of his works today.

His first full opera, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) was premiered in 1863 to middling-to-unfavorable reviews - though a tenor/baritone duet, "Au fond du temple saint" is part of the vocal repertoire for many budding singers.  Carmen itself premiered in 1875, and though its first run had over forty performances, Bizet did not live to see all of them.  At age 36, he died from heart failure, disappointed at the cool reception (despite the long performance run) of Carmen.  Performances of Carmen ceased almost immediately after Bizet's death, but only five years later, the opera was revived in Paris and has not left either the opera repertory or the public consciousness since.

Just in case anyone was worried, that last caption was a lie.

Carmen itself was based on a novel of the same name published in 1845.  But before we get into the piece itself, I feel it's probably necessary to get some sort of definition of opera across.  That is far easier said than done, of course - the opera has been around longer than the symphony (since 1597, for those keeping score) and operas can sound like just about anything, from Italian baroque to jazz to even rock-flavored music.  For our purposes, opera will be distilled down to this: it is a piece of art for the stage with music set to words (most of the time, at least) where the music takes precedence over the poetry of the words.  I think that just about covers 80% of opera, so that's a pretty good blanket statement.

But yes.  Back to Carmen.

It was commissioned in 1873, and two years and many, many disputes later (one of the producers wanted Bizet to change the tragic ending to a happy one - a request Bizet flatly refused to accomodate), was premiered.  Musically, this opera is important because up until that point, there were essentially two kinds of opera - opera comique and serious opera (not to be confused, of course, with opera seria - but that is another day).  Carmen managed to marry the two forms together to create an art form that is not bereft of humor, but also manages to convey great emotional weight.

In the opera, there are three extraordinarily well-known melodies.  The first of these is "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle," more commonly known as the Habañera (as sung by our friend the Sesame Street Orange in the first video).  In Carmen, the piece is sung by Carmen herself, a sassy, saucy cigarette factory worker.  The lyrics of the piece, sung after a great gaggle of men all ask her when she will love them, state that love is a rebellious bird, and that it knows no laws. 

For those not clear on the Toreador lifestyle.

Second, we have the Toreador song.  This can be heard in the second half of the second video.  In the opera, it is sung by Escamillo, a toreador.  The lyrics are about... well... being a toreador.  Hey - I never claimed Bizet was a master of subtlety.  I will claim, however, that once you listen to the Toreador song, it will be in your head for the next six hours.

Third, and finally, the beginning of the overture.  This music is most often found in commercials (though oddly enough, I haven't heard it on television for a while).  This music is from act 4, during which the characters are all preparing for an impending bull fight.

So there we have it, folks.  Not one, not two, but three melodies that show up in places as diverse as Meet the Parents, Babe, and The Hudsucker Proxy.  If only Bizet could've known that his music would be one day as loved and well-known as any classical music can be.

Further Listening:

Like Bizet, and men singing?  Try "Au fond du temple saint," from Les pêcheurs de perles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tLrPVkfCIQ

Like French opera from the the 19th century?  Try "Les oiseaux..." from Les contes d'Hoffman, by Jacques Offenbach:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1k5l4oiCEc

And finally, a bonus video: