All the President's Men isn't the only significant 50th anniversary in the world of film in April of 2026—another film, of much different nature but also much-beloved, turns 50 this month as well: The Bad News Bears. The classic sports-comedy currently holds a score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, where the site's critical consensus reads, "The Bad News Bears is rude, profane, and cynical, but shot through with honest, unforced humor, and held together by a deft, understated performance from Walter Matthau." Critic Roger, writing at the time in the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "an unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society." Part of what continues to make The Bad News Bears so memorable—along of course with the terrific acting from not only the great Walter Matthau but also the brilliant team of child actors—is the rousing score, adapted from Georges Bizet's great opera, Carmen. Tuesday afternoon, in honor of the film's 50 anniversary, and as a tribute to the music's adapatability from one medium to another (a quality of eleasticity reserved only for the greatest of works and composers, and that is also always a tribute to the original), we'll hear a spirited adaptation of the unforgettable music from Bizet's operatic masterpiece made for the ballet stage by the great Russian composer of the late Soviet era, Rodion Shchedrin, his wildly inventive Carmen Bellet for Strings and Percussion. And, as long as we're at it, we may just have to hear another short arrangement or two from Bizet's Carmen, in the spirit of the afternoon.
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 on Blue Lake Public Radio.
