Romantic · 1875
Habanera (Carmen)
G. BizetCarmen, Act I
- Key
- Dm
- Time
- 2/4
- Tempo
- ♩=76
- AO focus
- AO3
Incipit
Form
Aria from Bizet's opera Carmen — 'L'amour est un oiseau rebelle'. Habanera = Cuban-derived Spanish dance form, characterised by a syncopated dotted-rhythm bass. Carmen's first appearance in the opera; she sings her entire seductive philosophy in three minutes.
Teaching points
- Habanera bass rhythm — the recurring dotted-eighth + sixteenth + two-eighth pattern. Practise this independently
- Chromatic descent — the vocal melody snakes down chromatically across each phrase. Discuss what this represents about Carmen
- Modal mixture — bars in D minor alternate with bars in D major as the theme repeats
- AO3: text-music marriage — how does Bizet's chromaticism reinforce Carmen's character?
Full score ↓Public domain
Score: IMSLP (Choudens + later urtext editions, all public domain).