Where in Oxford is Carmen?

Hint: It's not in San Diego.

Rather, I saw Carmen at the New Theatre in Oxford. (I'll be seeing Alison Moyet in concert there on my birthday, and I also plan to catch next spring's performances of Pirates of Penzance and Fiddler on the Roof. If I can find a chance next week, I'll also see Starlight Express. I'm also still hoping the March performance of Van Morrison will be doable.)

Anyway, I assume most of you reading this have heard of Carmen. I had heard of it before, knew a couple of songs, and recognized some others (without knowing they were from this opera... this would be far from the first time that some of the familiar songs in a performance were not ones I had known were there). I wanted to see Carmen because I knew it had songs I liked. Ordinarily, I like musicals much better than operas, but I really enjoyed the performance tonight (basically because I like the music... I'm sure that's such a shock). The most notable song that I knew but didn't know was from Carmen is one I ordinarily see in baseball blooper reels. (This is the song that gets played when the people are at the stadium to see the bullfighters and the various players are essentially parading in front of the crowd. Hmmm... I really want to mention Tom Lehrer's comment about the sight of "one man facing single-handedly half a ton of angry pot roast.")

Of course, the song that runs through the entire performance (which I knew would be there, and which is now unsurprisingly stuck in my head) is The Toreador Song. I really like that song, but the version in tonight's performance unfortunately didn't include some of the alternate lyrics of my childhood:

"Toreador-a
Don't piss on the floor-a.
Use the whatchamacallit.
What do you think it's for-a?"

(Sometimes, "toilet" was used instead of "whatchamacallit", but then one needs to extend the 'Use' so it sounds like multiple syllables.)

With that lovely piece of imagery, I finish this entry.