slipped him a note revealing that several
female singers had decided to wear noth-
ones by our smiles,” the anonymous writer
mischievously explained.
Just prior to the second performance, Sinclair
was slipped another note revealing
that several male singers had likewise decided
to go commando. Both times, says
Sinclair, he turned to see the entire chorus
blush — and then go on with the show.
The Goliards would surely have approved.
In 2007, the Bach Festival Choir performed
Carmina Burana again, this time with the
London Symphony Orchestra. Needless to
say, it was a proper production — minus
monk robes and without any accompanying
tomfoolery.
Hill, who was eager to collaborate, instantly
began to imagine the possibilities for
choreography. “Basically, I wanted all the
dancers at the beginning to come straight
out of a cannon,” he says.
“After that, for each of the sections, I included
something to symbolize what was
a reference to a roasting swan in one poem,
so I have a dancer lifted into the air in a
movement that could be interpreted as a
rising swan. But mainly, I just did everything
I could to match the intensity of the sound.”
The resulting production concocted by Hill
16 artsLife | FALL 2018
and Sinclair — sans any clandestine nudity
— rocked the drafty old theater in ways that
might even have impressed Elvis, who played
“Robert and I worked together really well,”
says Sinclair. “We had an early discussion
course, to drama of the backstage variety.
bickering over artistic differences when
an orchestra to accommodate the execu-
-
cate trick — one that not every conductor
can pull off.
“I worried a lot about that,” says Hill. “But
John was perfect.” The 2014 production was
made even more memorable by its location
in the brand-spanking new Walt Disney Theater
— a place most locals had not yet set
provides the special-occasion hook.
So, plenty of Central Floridians have already
seen some version of Carmina Burana.
-
The production begins and ends with a
poem entitled Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (“Fortune
Rules the World”). Within the raucous
solitary party pooper; a darkly philosophical
rumination bewailing “fate — monstrous and
empty” as an uncaring force that rules over
PHOTO BY KAREN LESLIE PHOTOGRAPHY (JOHN SINCLAIR)
Two of the region’s cultural icons previously collaborated on Carmina Burana in 2013 and 2014. Now,
they’re at it again. John V. Sinclair (below left), artistic director of the Bach Festival Society of Winter
Park, and Robert Hill (below right), artistic director of the Orlando Ballet, are set to deliver another
crowd-pleasing performance this time around.