Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”, Carmen), piano arrangement

Georges Bizet · Level 4 (Intermediate) · Romantic · Piano

Carmen’s entrance aria: a chromatically descending melody over the swaying rhythm of the Cuban habanera (dotted eighth, sixteenth, two eighths). A piece by Georges Bizet, composer of Carmen (1875), the most performed French opera in the world. D minor, 2/4, 90 bars (about 3 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• The left-hand habanera rhythm must never falter; the melody can take a little freedom, with a touch of insolence. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

More pieces by Georges Bizet

• Carmen: Entr’acte to Act II (piano version)

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · Public Domain Mark 1.0