Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man – Birmingham Hippodrome
The sultry, slinky melodies of Carmen have been sliding across our collective consciousnesses since they slipped from George Bizet’s quill back in 1875 with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy in turn plundered from the novella by the gloriously named Prosper Merimee. I wonder if he ever did. At the time it was a ground-breaking and shocking presentation scandalising the good folk of Paris and within only 33 performances the composer was dead unaware of what a world-renowned classic he had given birth to. Commercials, movies, samplings, parodies, concerts and even the occasional ice dance all gleaned inspiration and clips from dear George. Opera houses across the globe rely on its crowd pleasing sauce and sex to light up the box-office which is does with relentless ease year aft...