Carmen Suite No.1

Prelude

Aragonaise

Intermezzo

Seguidilla

The Dragoons of Alcala

The Toreadors

Bizet himself never wrote a Carmen Suite. For one thing, he didn’t have the opportunity: he died only a year after completing the opera and much of the time that was left to him was taken up by the problems of getting the work staged and revising the score to improve its dramatic effectiveness. For another thing, although the original production was not the complete failure it is traditionally claimed to have been - the composer’s death coincided with the 33rd of a run of 45 performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris - he could have had no idea of how enormously successful Carmen would eventually become and what demand there would be for the more popular numbers in arrangements of all kinds.

Since today’s selection - the first of two suites usefully compiled for the concert hall by Fritz Hoffmann - does not present the six numbers in the order in which they appear in the opera, there is little point in attempting to follow the story line. It does begin near the beginning, however, with the dramatic episode that interrupts the otherwise festive prelude to the opera with a dire warning – issued by a trumpet and other wind instruments over nervous tremolandos on the violins and ominous thumps in the bass – that a tragic end is in store for both Carmen and her lover Don José. The Aragonaise, based on a lively Aragonese jota, comes from the other end of the opera, where it sets the scene before the curtain rises on a busy street scene outside the bullring in Seville. The Intermezzo, which features Bizet’s favourite combination of flute and harp, is a melodiously lyrical interlude from the central point of the opera, and the turning point of the plot, between the second and third acts.

Carmen herself sings and (with any luck) dances three particularly seductive numbers in the first two acts. The Seguidilla comes from the first, where she persuades Corporal Don José into letting her go after she has been arrested for causing a disturbance in the cigarette factory. The tune introduced on bassoons at the beginning of The Dragoons of Alcala – taken by Hoffmann from the entracte between the first and second acts – is the same as that of the song sung offstage by Private Don José as he comes to meet up with Carmen after his demotion and imprisonment. And finally, back to the beginning with the festive music, including the march of the Toreadors, that opens the prelude to the opera and reappears in a colourful episode for the chorus at the bull fight in the last act.