 Bizet 's earliest compositions , chiefly songs and keyboard pieces written as exercises , give early indications of his emergent power and his gifts as a melodist . Dean sees evidence in the piano work Romance sans parole , written before 1854 , of " the conjunction of melody , rhythm and accompaniment " that is characteristic of Bizet 's mature works . Bizet 's first orchestral piece was an overture written in 1855 in the manner of Rossini 's Guillaume Tell . Critics have found it unremarkable , but the Symphony in C of the same year has been warmly praised by later commentators who have made favourable comparisons with Mozart and Schubert . In Dean 's view the symphony has " few rivals and perhaps no superior in the work of any composer of such youth " . The critic Ernest Newman suggests that Bizet may at this time have thought that his future lay in the field of instrumental music , before an " inner voice " ( and the realities of the French musical world ) turned him towards the stage . 
