Georges Bizet

Carmen Suite No. 2

Ernest Guiraud (1837-1892) was a colleague and good friend of Bizet's. After Bizet's death, he composed the recitatives still commonly used in Carmen. Between 1880 and 1882, he compiled two orchestral suites from this opera, each in five movements, for Choudens, Bizet's publisher. The second of these two suites included the "Marche des Contrebandiers," "Habanera," "Nocturne," "La Garde Montante," and "Danse Bohème." In this second suite, Guiraud stayed fairly close to Bizet's original orchestration. Around 1906, the German composer-conductor Fritz Hoffmann (1873-19xx) orchestrated "Chanson du Toréador," from bars 1-58 and 117-27 of the aria from Act II, for inclusion in a publication of the Suite by a German publisher. Instrumentation: 2dPicc.2(2dEH).2.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(3): Hp: Str(9-8-7-6-5). Hoffmann's edition also includes the option to perform, through doubling and cues, with a reduced orchestration of as little as 2.1.2.0: 2.2.1(BTbn).0: Timp. Str.