'Carmen' is one of the most popular and most frequently performed operas across the globe. Its world premiere was a flop. Nevertheless the opera very quickly gained acceptance at all major theatres bringing in its wake countless arrangements of some particularly beautiful music numbers among them the Carmen Fantasia for violin and orchestra by the Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate.It was in all probability Bizet's close friend and fellow student Ernest Guiraud who brought 12 numbers of the opera together to form two orchestral suites. The missing singing voices were replaced by instruments as was common practice in such cases. In addition to the two pocketscores full score and orchestral parts are available as hire material.
