Carmen opened at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875 to a divided audience. Bizet died 3 months later to the day, never knowing it would become one of the most performed operas in the world. The Prelude sets the whole scene in under 3 minutes, and you recognize it within the first few bars.
⏱3:01 with repeats♪2149 notes🎚Advanced🎼A major♩116 per quarter🎹G#1 → A6🦶pedal marks
It strings together 3 ideas. First the A major march, the music of the bullfight procession in the last act, bright and brassy. Then the Toreador refrain in F major, the tune everyone can hum. Then a hard cut: the slow fate motif in D minor, which stops on a diminished seventh chord. On piano, it's a dense orchestral reduction with full chords in both hands.
The opening march, brilliant and rhythmically tight
The Toreador refrain, well articulated but never heavy
The switch to the fate motif, slow and dark, with no transition
The full chords of the orchestral reduction, played loose
The tricky passages
Bar 25 : the busiest bar, with 30 notes across both hands
Bar 31 : the left hand stretches over 47 semitones (chord to roll)
Bar 78 : 8 notes in a row in the right hand, at about 7.7 notes per second
Bar 97 : a leap of 21 semitones in the left hand, in under half a second
Playing the Carmen Prelude on piano with Pianovera
The Prelude changes character 3 times, so in Pianovera set one loop per section and practice them apart, the march at 60% speed. Wait mode is precious on its chords: it lets you place them note by note before you bring the tempo back.
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About this piece
How long is the Carmen Prelude?
The MIDI file lasts 3:01, with every repeat played in full: 147 bars in 2/4 (163 played with the repeats), 2149 notes, at 116 bpm (quarter notes). Slowed to 60%, it lasts 5:02.
What level do you need to play the Carmen Prelude?
We rate it advanced in A major, with sustain pedal marks. The left hand stretches up to 47 semitones (chord to roll) and the right hand up to 12 semitones (an octave), across 61 semitones of keyboard (G#1 to A6), at 11.8 notes per second on average. The first thing to work on: the opening march, brilliant and rhythmically tight.
What is the hardest passage in the Carmen Prelude?
It is bar 78: 8 notes in a row in the right hand, at about 7.7 notes per second.
What tempo should a beginner practice the Carmen Prelude at?
Aim for 70 bpm (quarter notes), which is 60% of the file's tempo (116).
Is there sheet music for the Carmen Prelude with fingering?
Yes: 1495 fingerings, 147 bars, shown in full above and as a free printable PDF.
The the Carmen Prelude MIDI file (39 KB) is the one this page plays, repeats included. Our score, fingering and this MIDI are redone from the Mutopia Project edition by Alex O'S: CC BY-SA 2.5 license (share-alike), free to use, commercial use included, as long as this credit is kept PDF.
