Hill’s choreography melds movement with music.
D I D Y O U K N O W ?
O Fortuna can be heard in countless movies and television commercials and has become
a pop culture staple, usually setting the mood for dramatic or disastrous situations. It topped
a 2009 list of the most-played classical music of the previous 75 years in the United Kingdom.
18 artsLife | FALL 2018
EVENT: Carmina Burana
DATE/TIME: Friday, October 12,
7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 13,
2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday,
October 14, 2 p.m.
VENUE: Walt Disney Theater
NOTES: Kicking off the Orlando
style, the Carl Orff sensory spectacle
includes 30 dancers as well as 60
players and more than 200 singers
from the Bach Festival Society of
Winter Park Choir and Orchestra.
TICKETS: Prices starting at $19
844.513.2014 • drphillipscenter.org
humanity and “always fades to nothing.”
But again: Unless you count legalese and
root of countless familiar words and phrases
can be.
Consequently, all that comes across to au-
as in-your-face as the accompanying instrumentation.
(Yes, you could follow along
using a translation published in the pro-
eyes off the dancers.)
Just let loose and immerse yourself in
understand the words to know without a
antecedent of “Put on a Happy Face” or
“Keep on the Sunny Side.”
Put another way, imagine the sternest
it by a choir of 200 singing at the top of its
lungs. Then add a full orchestra sounding like
an oncoming thunderhead bearing a rum-
ation — and headed straight your way.
Now you know why Fortuna Imperatrix
Mundi — otherwise known as O Fortuna —
keeps getting repurposed by those who wish
to grab the attention of an audience and
hang onto it for dear life.
Indeed, O Fortuna is considered pop cul-
eclipsing such frequently-used compositions
as Also Spake Zarathustra — the music that
accompanies the opening scene of 2001: A
Space Odyssey — for the distinction of being
most often borrowed.
So, sure, fate may be “monstrous and
empty.” But clearly, those who keep borrowing
O Fortuna see it as a lucky charm.
And for Hill and Sinclair, Carmina Burana
— a hypnotic feast for the senses — has never
yet failed to wow audiences, including
those who might not otherwise pay much
attention to ballet or classical music.
“I remember talking to Betsy Gwinn after
one of the shows,” recalls Hill, referring to
-
about Carmina Burana
understatement.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL CAIRNS
G E T Y O U R T I C K E T S
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