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Carl Orff's Carmina Burana at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Oct. 01, 2008

The Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos perform Carl Orff's epic cantata Carmina Burana on November 6 in Boston's Symphony Hall. Joining the BSO in this grand production is the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, PALS Children's Chorus, and Sequentia: Ensemble for Medieval Music. Completed in 1936, Carmina Burana's timeless themes of love, lust, the joy of the return of spring and the ephemeral nature of life along with its powerfully dramatic score have given the work a lasting appeal as it continues to see non-stop performances in various manifestations by organizations worldwide each year. Its use in countless Hollywood movies, trailers and commercials has also rendered it one of the most widely heard and recognized classical music themes of our time. Known mainly for its opening and closing theme "O Fortuna" Carmina Burana contains music for virtually very mood, ranging from the simple chant and solo arias to bombastic pounding rhythms of the full orchestra and choruses together.

Carmina Burana adheres to the principles of Orff's Theatrum Mundi (total theater) concept in which music, movement and speech become inseparable. Though generally performed as a concert hall cantata, the work was originally intended as a staged work involving dance, choreography, visual design and other stage action. Orff's artistic formula limited the music in that every musical moment was to be connected with an action on stage. It is here that most modern performances of Carmina Burana fall short of Orff's intentions. According to Orff, to hear the music without seeing the action is to only experience half the piece; the languages, music, movement, and dance should all be treated as equals. The BSO's performances on November 6, 7 and 8 feature soprano Norah Amsellem, tenor William Ferguson and baritone Christian Gerhaher.

Known mainly for this towering epic, Carl Orff also established the Güntherschule in 1924 for music and dance, whose primary objective it was to explore and teach new relationships between these two art forms. The teachings of the school eventually led to the development and publishing of the Orff-Schulwerk series which is still widely used in pedagogy and therapy with worldwide organizations devoted to this teaching philosophy including the American Orff-Schulwerk Association.

Later this season Long Beach Opera performs a run of Carl Orff's opera The Clever One. Conducted and directed by Andreas Mitisek, The Clever One tells the story of a foolish, tyrannical king being bested by a clever woman; a folk tale common to many cultures. Orff's version from 1943 delivers passages critical of dictatorship, creating a timeless and universal "world theater." Long Beach Opera presents two performances of The Clever Oneon May 8 and 17.

To learn more on the life and music of Carl Orff, please visit www.schott-music.com.

For more information on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance of Carmina Burana, go to www.bso.org.

To learn more and to order the Orff Schulwerk series, visit www.schott-music.com.

For more information about Long Beach Opera's production of The Clever One, visit www.longbeachopera.org.

Carl Orff
Carmina Burana (1936)
text compilation by Carl Orff
for soprano, tenor, baritone, SATB chorus and children's chorus
3 (2.3.pic)3(3.ca)3(1.eb cl, 2.3.bcl)2.cbsn-4331-timp.5perc-2pno.cel-str
65'

O Fortuna
from Carmina Burana
for mixed chorus and orchestra3(3.pic)3(3.ca)3(3.eb cl)2.cbsn-4331-timp.3perc-2pno-str
3'30'

Die Kluge (The Clever One) (1942)
libretto (Ger) Carl Orffü
soprano, 2 tenor, 2 baritone, 3 bass
3(3 pic)3(3.ca)3(eb and bcl)2.cbsn-4331-timp.4perc-hp.cel·pno-str
on stage: 3tp, perc, glockenspiel, organ
90'

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