CAR-meen-uh

Last week. Where did it go? It was quite a blur.

Last week was our performance of Carmina Burana... with the Tulsa Ballet and the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. It was a crazy collection of groups and performers, and it came together quite nicely. But, it made for a demanding schedule... practices or performances every night from the 18th through the 25th. Plus... work has been crazy as The Gathering has been preparing for its move to a rented facility.


EXCERPTS FROM THE TULSA WORLD...

Ballet shines in golden performance
By JAMES D. WATTS JR.
World Scene Writer
9/25/2006

Even more important was that this production showed what Tulsa as a whole is capable of when it comes to the performing arts. While this was Tulsa Ballet's season opener, it was also a collaborative effort among the dance company, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and the Tulsa Children's Chorus. That's what is needed to present something like "Carmina Burana," which Cong set to Carl Orff's massive "dramatic cantata." It's usually presented strictly as a work for chorus and orchestra, but Orff envisioned the piece as multi-discipline extravaganza, combining instrumental and vocal music with movement and theater.

A number of choreographers have created a "Carmina Burana," usually taking their inspiration from the often bawdy medieval lyrics that, because they're sung in Latin, sound more like religious texts than songs about spring and sex, gambling and boozing.

Cong's version of "Carmina Burana" is more abstract, more guided by music than words. What happened on stage may have been on occasion at odds with what was begin sung, but it fit perfectly with the sounds one heard, as if giving physical form to the emotions these syllables and notes evoke.

The performances by the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, arranged on the wings of the Chapman Music Hall stage, and the Tulsa Children's Chorus, who sang behind scrims at the back of the stage, were excellent -- full of power and drama, subtlety and emotion.

Conductor Carmon DeLeone brought all the elements on stage together with style and deceptive ease. The Tulsa Symphony responded winningly to his urgent, driving tempi (this was one of the fastest "Carmina Buranas" we've heard), and the balance among instruments and voices was superb.