Music and Story
As the title of the ballet suggests, the music for The Car Man was based on that composed for the opera Carmen (1875) by French composer Georges Bizet (1838–1875). However, the original score was not used. Instead, composer Terry Davies used as a starting-point the 40-minute Bolshoi Ballet version Carmen Ballet (1967) employing only strings (cello and double bass) and percussion by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin (1932– ), and composed additional music based on the original score. This was the first time that Matthew Bourne had collaborated with a composer to create a complete score.
The story of The Car Man differs completely from the plot of Bizet's Carmen. Although Bourne has commented that at least two characters, one male (probably Luca) and one female (Lana), were "like" the character of Carmen, and that Luca himself is "The Car Man", no characters were intended to actually be Carmen. According to Bourne, "I wasn't particularly interested in the story of Carmen, the opera, I didn't even know it that well, and I still don't know it that well, to be honest. I know there are parallels, but it was more the feeling of the music and the feeling of what we all know Carmen to be." The story is loosely based on the 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by American novelist James M. Cain (1892–1977) and the 1946 and 1981 films of the same name respectively starring John Garfield and Lana Turner, and Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.
In the films, Frank, a drifter, stops at a rural California diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a beautiful young woman, Cora, and her much older husband, Nick, a Greek immigrant whom she does not love. Frank and Cora have an affair, and scheme to murder Nick in order to start a new life together without Cora losing the diner. Their first attempt at the murder is a failure, but they eventually succeed. The local prosecutor suspects what has occurred, but does not have enough evidence to prove it. As a tactic to get Cora and Frank to turn on one another, he prosecutes only Cora for the crime. Although they do turn against each other, a clever ploy from Cora's lawyer prevents her full confession from coming into the hands of the prosecutor. Cora is ultimately acquitted. Frank and Cora eventually patch together their tumultuous relationship, and plan for a future together. However, as they seem prepared to finally live "happily ever after", Cora dies in a car accident. The ending of the films differs from that of Cain's original book. There, Frank ends up wrongly convicted for Cora's murder.
The characters of Luca, Lana and Dino in The Car Man are clearly modelled after Frank, Cora and Nick in the films, and Nick's murder by Frank and Cora is paralleled by the killing of Dino by Luca and Lana in the ballet. Frank's wrongful conviction in Cain's novel is also referenced by the miscarriage of justice perpetrated against Angelo. However, the resemblance ends there. Bourne introduces into the story the themes of unrequited love, betrayal and revenge present in some of his other ballets such as Swan Lake. A homoerotic element is also present: the protagonist Luca is bisexual – he has an affair with Angelo, and also kisses one of the mechanics working at Dino's Garage on the lips to annoy him; the fact that Angelo has been raped in prison by the warden, Dexter, is alluded to; and two of the mechanics, Marco and Vito, make out with each other.
Read more about this topic: The Car Man (Bourne)
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