On the weekend I went to see a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I’d always loved the O Fortuna chorus, since I first saw it in the film Excalibur many years ago. That piece of music inspired me to go out and buy my first classical CD. And on Saturday I got off my bum and went to see the full thing, complete with hundreds of singers and a full orchestra. I loved it. I haven’t gone to many classical concerts in my life but I might be a convert after this.
I’ve since looked up the translation of the lyrics, which are in Latin and High German. It turns out the cantata is a profane pagan celebration of fortune, Spring, drinking and sex. Now that’s my kind of music!
A few choice lyrics:
My virginity
makes me frisky,
my simplicity
holds me back
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and
May God grant, may the gods grant
what I have in mind:
that I may loose
the chains of her virginity. Ah!
and
If a boy with a girl
tarries in a little room,
happy is their coupling.
Love rises up,
and between them
prudery is driven away,
an ineffable game begins
in their limbs, arms and lips.
The video above makes use of the most famous end section and is a dance interpretation performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Orff originally intended his piece to include dance but it’s rarely performed that way. The one above is quite a thing to watch, what with body-stockinged dancers (complete with nipples), a man in a loincloth, guys in drag and Lady Fortune in short skirt and high heels.
The end result looks like what would happen if the models from Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love video escaped into the opera house. Kind of weird, but kind of cool too.