Latest news with #OFortuna
The National
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Carmina Burana review: Modern take on medieval musings is raw, ungainly, but ultimately infused with joy
You don't have to be a ballet buff to recognise the opening bars of Carmina Burana, currently being staged at Dubai Opera until May 24. Ominous and powerful, the music of O Fortuna - that opens and closes this ballet - has become instantly familiar thanks to its overuse on the silver screen. It has been used in Excalibur (1981) The Doors (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994) - plus countless advertisements, from instant coffee and Old Spice aftershave to Gatorade. So famous is its opening fanfare, in fact, that any performance risks being upstaged by its own overture. Yet, at Dubai Opera — where Carl Orff's piece is being staged by Edward Clug, the artistic director of the Slovenian National Ballet — the sparse, sinuous production ignores the cliche and returns the music to what it is: an exploration of the human spirit. Clug's interpretation is so visually and emotionally arresting that he is able to restore the music to its rightful place of being terrifyingly beautiful. Composed in 1936 by Orff, Carmina Burana is inspired by 11th and 12th century Bavarian manuscripts, written by hedonistic, wandering student-poets known as goliards. Although scholars now question this attribution, it remains a meditation on the human experience: the intoxication of love and the absurdities of life, against the omnipresent hand of fate. Divided into chapters, each deal with a different emotion that remains as relevant today as when it was written 700 years ago. Love, sensuality, the awakening of earthly pleasures, as well as cynicism, spiritual desolation and parody, are all overshadowed by fortune's wheel that hangs menacingly over the stage. This circular motif is repeated through the dance too - as a tightly packed circle, each dancer leaning on the next; as a vast loop covering the stage, the dancers linked just the tips of their fingers; or as individuals, who spin in tight, compact spirals. It signals the ticking of time and a continuous thread that binds us all together. The entire set is likewise a giant circle, part halo, part enclosure and ever-present. Sometimes playful, as when two dancers embrace in a field of legs, moving in the breeze. It can be foreboding, descending almost onto the dancer's heads, this reduction echoing the poem's monastic origins. Yet, despite the brevity, this is a work of surprising tenderness and sensuality, as well as wit, such as when the dancers shiver with insect-like twitches. Clug's taut choreography is beautiful, as a tender embrace, and also difficult to watch, as awkward flailings or rigid tension. It is also demanding, with the dancers, led by Evgenija Koskina, and a 30-strong cast, including Asami Nakashima, Catarina De Meneses and Tijuana Krizman Hudernik, on stage almost every moment. But the raw essence of humanity being laid bare before us is what makes Clug's staging so powerful – it is raw, ungainly and ugly, but also exquisite and infused with joy. Despite the incidental fame of O Fortuna, the rest of the piece is grounded in an almost medieval spirituality that is powerful and sinewy to behold. Clug's work is a reminder that great art, when entrusted to the right hands, will always be astonishing. Carmina Burana is at Dubai Opera until May 24.
Broadcast Pro
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Broadcast Pro
Dubai Opera to host premiere of ‘Carmina Burana The Ballet'
Tickets for Carmina Burana The Ballet are now available through the Dubai Opera website. Dubai Opera has announced the premiere of Carmina Burana The Ballet, set to take place on May 23 and 24, 2025. This production reinterprets Carl Orff's legendary cantata through a fusion of classical and contemporary ballet, offering audiences a bold and emotionally charged theatrical journey. Known for its powerful opening chorus, O Fortuna, and its dramatic choral arrangements, Carmina Burana remains one of the most iconic works in the classical music canon. Under the direction of choreographer Edward Clug, this ballet adaptation transforms Orff's score into a performance that explores the themes of destiny, desire and the fickleness of fortune. Clug's choreography is matched by an evocative stage design and dramatic lighting that elevate the emotional impact of the piece. Paolo Petrocelli, Head of Dubai Opera, said: 'We are thrilled to present Carmina Burana The Ballet at Dubai Opera for the first time. This production reflects the artistic excellence and creativity we strive to deliver to our audiences. The powerful fusion of Orff's score with Clug's choreography offers a unique experience that is both emotionally stirring and visually striking. As a cultural landmark, Dubai Opera is dedicated to hosting world-class performances that inspire and engage, and this ballet is a brilliant addition to our season.' The production is presented by the Ballet of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor, a company recognised internationally for its style that blends traditional ballet technique with contemporary expression. Since its premiere in 2021, this version of Carmina Burana has been praised for its artistic depth and dramatic flair. The creative team features set designer Marko Japelj, costume designer Leo Kulaš and lighting designer Tomaž Premzl, all contributing to a performance.. With only two performances scheduled, this limited engagement promises to be a highlight of Dubai's cultural calendar. The one-hour performance, staged without intermission, is expected to draw ballet enthusiasts and lovers of classical music alike.
Otago Daily Times
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Festival all about 'uplifting the next generation'
REPORT: TRACEY ROXBURGH / PHOTO: SADHBH PHOTOGRAPHY Members of the Rejoice! community choir project brought the curtain down on the 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival at the Queenstown Memorial Centre yesterday afternoon. Festival director Anne Rodda said the choir, primarily comprising members of the Queenstown community, supported by members of the National Youth Choir and Lexus Song Quest prizewinners, learnt The Hallelujah Chorus, O Fortuna and Ode to Joy and had just three rehearsals under the guidance of directors Dr Karen Grylls and Elise Bradley before yesterday's performance. "The whole premise of this festival is about uplifting the next generation and about creating space for them to work next to, and alongside, the professionals, and so here you have it — the professionals, the young artists and community artists making a joyful noise together." Held every three years, this year's festival, again sponsored by the family of Arrowtown-based music philanthropist Sir Michael Hill, featured six public concerts, three private concerts and three workshops. Participants had shown "150% commitment", but "we need the community to invest in supporting by coming to live music", she said. "The community needs to invest in events ... by buying tickets and by being there, otherwise it's too hard."
Los Angeles Times
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Everything you need to know about ‘Carmina Burana,' Hollywood's go-to music for epic movie moments
This Sunday, the Los Angeles Master Chorale will fill the sails of Walt Disney Concert Hall with that stormy, earwormy cantata by Carl Orff: 'Carmina Burana.' The chorale will be joined by an orchestra and two children's choruses, and will also perform the world premiere of Reena Esmail's 'Jahaaṅ: Five Indian Folk Songs.' 'Carmina Burana' is a mainstay of the classical repertoire and one of the most widely recognizable concert works of the 20th century. But what exactly is it — and why do choirs keep returning to this 'circle of fortune'? Here is everything you need to know about 'Carmina Burana.' Where have I heard this before? Oh, maybe in millions of movie trailers during the last 40 years (an exaggeration but barely). The marriage of 'Carmina' and cinema arguably started in 1981 with the film 'Excalibur,' which indelibly used the opening movement 'O Fortuna' as King Arthur rides into battle with his knights. The medieval context was appropriate, but it also robustly demonstrated how damned epic and cinematic this old song was — and the entertainment world, which was beginning an arms race for epicness, started using 'O Fortuna' (the cantata's most famous movement, which bookends the hourlong work) in anything and everything as basically a shot of musical steroids. Oliver Stone needle-dropped it in 'The Doors,' in a scene where Jim Morrison drinks blood in a pagan ritual. (Ironically, the Doors' keyboard player, Ray Manzarek, did a bizarre rock cover of 'Carmina Burana' in 1983.) It was used in countless trailers in the '80s and '90s — from 'Glory' to 'Waterworld' to 'The Nutty Professor.' The latter was an example of how the overuse of this overwrought oratorio made it perfect fodder for parody, and the humor of juicing something comedic with its uber-seriousness. In that spirit, 'O Fortuna' was used in a huge variety of commercials — from Old Spice to Carlton Draught beer — not to mention multiple times in 'The Simpsons.' But many artists continued to take the piece seriously and deployed it to persuade us to take them super seriously. Michael Jackson used it in a montage of his international concerts and the hysteria they produced; rappers and hip-hop artists have sampled it — see: 'Hate Me Now' by Nas — and lots of sports teams have used it to hype up the home crowd. These days, you're most likely to hear 'O Fortuna' used ironically in a TikTok video. Who wrote it: when, where and why? Carl Orff composed 'Carmina Burana' in 1936, drawing upon a disparate collection of poetry and songs, mostly in Latin and mostly by anonymous writers. Dating as far back as the 11th century, these pieces had been discovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803. The German composer, whose work often plumbed the ancient past, came across them in 1934. He was spellbound. 'Right when I opened it,' Orff reflected, 'on the very first page, I found the long-famous illustration of 'Fortune With the Wheel,' and under it the lines: 'O Fortuna velut Luna statu variabilis…' The picture and the words took hold of me. 'A stage work with choruses for singing and dancing, simply following the pictures and text, sprang to life immediately in my mind,' he said, and he feverishly produced a musical story in 25 chapters for massive choir, soloists and bombastic orchestras. Organized in three parts — 'Primo Vere' (Spring), 'In Taberna' (In the Tavern) and 'Cour d'Amours' (The Court of Love) — it is an alternately tempestuous, frolicking and romantic tour of life, musically recalling Bavarian folk music, drinking songs and love ballads, but all framed with the pounding war cries of 'O Fortuna.' How was it received when it premiered? It was a hit! The work was premiered by the Frankfurt Opera in June 1937, with costumed performers and sets. (It eventually morphed into a pure concert piece.) The reviews in Germany were good, and it was soon given hundreds of performances in Orff's homeland. It took two decades to reach America — premiering at Carnegie Hall in June 1954 — but it quickly seized hold in the classical scene here, very rapidly becoming the most performed, and most recorded, choral compositions of the century. Why was it controversial? Orff wrote the piece in Germany during the Nazi regime, and it was very popular with the Nazis — harmonizing uncomfortably well with their testosterone-fueled propaganda. Orff was never a member of the Nazi party himself, but it's unclear how cozy he was with the people who first embraced his cantata. Another reason is that, if you can translate Latin, some of the lyrics are quite bawdy and politically retrograde. (Example: 'My virginity makes me frisky / My simplicity holds me back.') So ... should I not bring my kids? To each their own, but musically speaking, 'Carmina Burana' is one of the more accessible and infectious concert works of the last century, and it has been a gateway drug for many generations into the larger ocean of classical music. Your kids may have even heard 'O Fortuna' somewhere already, and they'll probably tell you — happily — that it sounds like movie music. What has it influenced? Not only has 'O Fortuna' been used in tons of movies, but its influence is apparent in so many Hollywood film scores, which have routinely used beefy choirs and giant orchestras to approximate a similar feeling. Think of the devilish 'Ave Satani' in Jerry Goldsmith's 'The Omen' score or John Williams' 'Duel of the Fates' from 'The Phantom Menace.' Fun fact: When Stanley Kubrick was deciding on the musical approach for '2001: A Space Odyssey,' he gravitated toward 'Carmina Burana' so much that he actually rang Orff up and asked him to compose the film's score. Orff, then 71, turned him down.
