This minor-key Ballad by Antonio Lopes functions as a brief, emotive character piece. It displays typical 19th-century romantic gestures within a compact structure.
Maintain a consistent tempo while allowing for sensitive rubato in the melodic phrasing.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballad is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Ballad lasts about 2 minutes.
Ballad is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven, Berceuse by Rudolf Friml, Butterfly Lovers by Shuwen Zhang — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.