Orlando Ballet / Bach Festival Society Carmina Burana


You’ve heard O Fortuna, the opening segment of Carf Orff’s Carmina Burana even if you don’t know it:-it sounds like like nothing short of the soundtrack of a battle between heaven and hell, spectacle being exactly what Orff was going for as described in Scott Simon’s 2007 piece on the 1937 cantata. A spectacular collaboration of the piece between the Orlando Ballet and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, providing a 150 voices and a 50+ piece orchestra has just one more show at the Bob Car Performing Arts Center and does Orff’s vision a thrilling and joyful justice. It’s not just that the quality of all the performers is stellar: it’s the combination of their efforts, which magnified their gifts tremendously and brought home our luck in having so much talent to showcase. The minutes-long standing ovation made it clear: this collaboration between two outstanding artistic groups has to be one of the proudest moments of the arts in Central Florida.
And there’s only one more more performance, Sunday, 2pm, April 14, so click here for tickets. I have to say, though, it was so well-received I hope it will eventually be brought back  - or, as was brought up in the post-show Q&A with Bach Festival director Dr. John V. Sinclair and Orlando Ballet’s artistic director Robert Hill, potentially even tour. When you have something this good, as many people as possible need to see and hear it. 

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