 For his second envoi , not wishing to test the Académie 's tolerance too far , Bizet proposed to submit a quasi @-@ religious work in the form of a secular mass on a text by Horace . This work , entitled Carmen Saeculare , was intended as a song to Apollo and Diana . No trace exists , and it is unlikely that Bizet ever started it . A tendency to conceive ambitious projects , only to quickly abandon them , became a feature of Bizet 's Rome years ; in addition to Carmen Saeculare he considered and discarded at least five opera projects , two attempts at a symphony , and a symphonic ode on the theme of Ulysses and Circe . After Don Procopio Bizet completed only one further work in Rome , the symphonic poem Vasco da Gama . This replaced Carmen Saeculare as his second envoi , and was well received by the Académie , though swiftly forgotten thereafter . 
