23-24 Carmina Burana - Other - Page 40
OVERTURE
Fate Now Conquers (2020)
Composer:
Carlos Simon
AFTERGLOW
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Music:
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Choreography:
Todd Eric Allen
Sara Falstad with Jonathan Robbins
Isabel Borges with Tristen Hanson
Avery Ward with Nikolas Guifallin
Maille Blow, Zyla Webb, Sophia Killelea, Luci Ato (3/9) / Alaura Marquardt (3/10),
Jordan Cox, Ayva Ballesteros (3/9) / Bailey Choi (3/10)
~15 Minute Intermission~
CARMINA BURANA
Carmina Burana is a cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935-36 based on 24 poems written by
monks in the 13th century. The piece was first staged by Oper Frankfurt on June 8th, 1937.
Shortly after the premiere, Orff said to his publisher, “Everything I have written to date
unfortunately may be destroyed; with Carmina Burana my collected works begin."
Carmina is a reflection of the circle of life. We are born, grow, marry, decline, and die.
Annually, we have Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Daily, we have Morning, Day, Evening,
and Night. Overlaying these cyclical measures of time is the ephemeral nature of life, where
the “Wheel of Fortune” randomly distributes the graces of wealth, joy, love, and poverty
while equally giving the burdens of lust, poverty, disease, and failure. Everything that is now,
was once before—ashes to ashes and dust to dust. The Wheel continues to turn, it grinds
everything into the earth from whence it came, the cycle repeats, as it was in the beginning,
so it shall be again, forever and ever.