Last night Kevin and I went to see our friend Christina perform in the Utah Symphony's production of Carmina Burana as a soprano in the chorus. They did an amazing job, and this is such a rousing piece of music. I found it interesting in its nihilistic lyrics and how those work with the strident, but ear-pricking harmonies.
My favorite part is the most famous refrains that stand as bookends to the piece:
O Fortune,
like the moon
you are constantly changing,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.
Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me
And here are a couple of mobile phone pictures (hence, the quality) we took in in the lobby of Abravanel Hall. I was inspired by that evening's performance to make all sorts of remarks about this beautiful, intriguing sculpture, but I'm too discrete to mention them here. Christina and Dave have a family connection related to this sculpture and keeping it here in the Hall for the public of Salt Lake City, so that's pretty cool!
Also, on the way home from the performance, Christina and I discovered we have a previous connection in that we both sang in the Salt Lake Children's Choir in our youth. I sang from 1991-1995, and Christina sang in 1995-1996, so we must have song together for at least one concert season. See, I knew we were kindred spirits!
6 comments:
Thanks for coming, guys! It was great to have your support and I'm glad you enjoyed the concert.
Alisa, my mom found my old SLCC folder so I'm going to have her send it to me and we can look through it and see if we indeed overlapped in 1995!
How fun!!! Mine was almost as good... I went to see "Three Men in a Boat" at the York Theatre Royal today. I do enjoy that venue! Sounds like you guys had a rockin' time, in many ways! I can hear the music in my head. For Carmina Burana, I mean. Particularly "O Fortuna." Very suitable tune for the words...
PS. Guess who's coming home for 4 weeks in Sept/Oct? Pray hard that I upgrade in time! lol.
awesome sculpture sounds like you had a great time Sharol & Paul
I'm glad you guys had a fun time. Those are really cute pictures of everyone.
I sang in a chorus of Carmina Burana in a combined college choir a few years ago. They made my women's chorus sing all the parts that the children's choir was supposed to sing! That part was lame, but overall the music is beautiful and there are some impressive solos!
They also play "O Fortuna" when the library at our alma mater is about to close. Nice!
O Fortuna, may the blogger post many other beautiful posts! Carmina Burana, by the way, is worth watching!
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