Carmina Burana

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is performed at the Circus Maximus as part of the Rome Opera House's Summer Season; the show is conducted by Maestro Wayne Marshall, with video installations by the Anagoor company.

The Carmina Burana is a scenic choral and orchestral cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936 with the full title Carmina burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae, comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis. It is based on 24 poetic compositions - found among those in the medieval collection of the same name by goliards and wandering clerics - written in Medieval Latin, Middle German, and Old French in the 12th and 13th centuries. The cantata is structured into three main sections, each containing a series of movements.

The first section, entitled Primo vere (In Spring), celebrates the arrival of spring and describes the pleasures of nature, love, and youth; the second section, entitled In taberna (In the Tavern), focuses on the theme of pleasure and conviviality in a medieval tavern; while the third and final section, Cour d’amours (Court of Love), addresses themes such as romantic love, beauty, and the irony of life.

The work remains one of the most celebrated and representative of the 20th-century symphonic-choral repertoire. Its extraordinary expressive force, rhythmic intensity, and the power of the famous opening chorus, "O Fortuna", which also closes the work, have made it a timeless masterpiece, highlighting how human life is subject to the whims of the wheel of fortune and how nature, love, and beauty are at the mercy of the eternal law of change.

The music of Carmina Burana is powerful, rhythmic, and deeply moving, and is characterized by a deliberately archaic harmonic writing that represents Orff's reaction both to late Romantic harmony and to the new avant-garde movements represented by Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. The composer uses a large symphony orchestra, including percussion, brass, and strings, as well as a mixed choir and vocal soloists. The composition is notable for its percussive use of piano and drums, which contribute to a pressing and engaging rhythm.

Chorus Master: Ciro Visco; Soprano: Alessandra Marianelli; Baritone: Thomas Lehman; Countertenor: Ivan Borodulin. 

Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, with the participation of the Children's Chorus of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

Photo credits: Yasuko Kageyama