Habanera (music or dance of Havana) is the popular name for “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love Is a Rebellious Bird”), an aria from Georges Bizet’s 1875 opéra comique Carmen. It is the entrance aria of the title character, a mezzo-soprano role, in scene 5 of the first act. The score of the aria was adapted from the habanera “El Arreglito ou la Promesse de mariage”, by the Spanish musician Sebastián Iradier, first published in 1863, which Bizet thought to be a folk song.
