Carmen Suite no. 1

The two Carmen suites were not assembled by Bizet. Ernest Guiraud, his friend, put them together after the composer's death in 1875 — the same Guiraud who replaced the opera's spoken dialogue with sung recitatives for the Vienna production later that year. The first suite draws on the preludes and entr'actes rather than the vocal set pieces, so the orchestral material stands on its own without implying missing voices. Publication of the suites carried the music into concert halls well before many of them had seen the opera staged.