EVEN IN THE CAPACIOUS ANNALS of France v. Music, our neighbours’ reaction to Georges Bizet’s Carmen in 1875 was a doozy. A first-nighter which ended with everyone hating everything resulted in history’s arsiest reviews, a curtailed run and the composer checking out (aged 36, really from a broken heart) three months later — after producing the most thrilling opera of the lot.
There were extenuating circumstances for the ghastly audience, to be fair. The thing went on for over four hours with three intervals, those devilish devices
