Carmen Fantasy

Description

Flute, Piano — During the last part of the 19th century one of the most popular musical forms was the opera fantasy - pieces for one or more instruments using themes from well-known operas as a basis for brilliant variations. They were usually written by performers themselves to show off their own technical wizardry, the most famous and successful composer of opera fantasies being Franz Liszt.A great many flutists of the period wrote similar fantasies and one of the finest of the genre was the Fantaisie sur "Carmen" by Francis Borne, solo flutist of the Bordeaux Symphony.In the grand tradition of opera fantasies, I have rewritten the work to my own specifications using a large portion of Borne's original in the middle of the work but composing a new beginning and ending, adding new variations and cadenzas throughout. Finally, I orchestrated this new work (Borne's version was for flute and piano) using whatever possible Bizet's orchestration as a guide.Ransom Wilson