The piece
Carmen, Georges Bizet's opéra comique, was first performed in Paris at the Salle Favart on 3 March 1875; Bizet died three months later. The prelude strings together three ideas from the opera: the festive music that opens the last act, outside the bullring, in A major; the refrain of the toreador Escamillo's song, in F major; and, over a shiver in the orchestra, the fate motif, which is left hanging as the curtain rises. This solo piano version was published in New York by Schirmer in 1895.
The first part, at 116 beats per minute, calls for crisp detached chords and clean repeated sixteenths in the right hand while the left alternates bass and chord: keep the wrist supple and the fingers close to the keys. The trills in bars 4, 8 and 12 end with two small notes leading into the next bar. In the toreador's refrain, ben marcato, the melody turns legato. In the Andante moderato, the left hand sings the fate motif beneath right-hand tremolos, which should stay even and light.
