Carmina Burana

Songs of Beuern

The collection Carmina Burana, meaning “Songs of Beuern”, consists purely of secular-themed goliardic songs written in Latin, Middle High German and Old French mostly by wandering students and clergymen in the 13^th century. In the 19^th century, the manuscript ended up in Munich, where it was published by J. A. Schmeller in 1847. With Hofmann’s assistance, Carl Orff (1895-1982) selected the texts from 24 songs without making any effort to compile the songs into a story. Framed in structure, the work both opens and closes with the elementally powerful movement O Fortuna, which sings of the twists and turns of fate, with the 23 songs in between organised around three main themes: 1) “Primo Vere” / “Uf dem Anger” (“In Spring”/“In the Meadow”), evoking the atmosphere of springtime circle dances; 2) the jolly and playful, and at times uproarious, “In Taberna” (“In the Tavern”); and 3) starting out softly before growing more solemn, “Cour d’Amours” (“Court of Love”).

Although the codex included musical notations, Orff used none of them – instead composing his own separate and original music to the text. In the work, the solo parts for soprano, tenor and baritone voices are supplemented by an immense mixed choir, as well as by a children’s choir (or more precisely, a boys' choir). The music, which evokes the lyrical style of the Middle Ages despite having a 20^th-century sound, is built on simple melodies and draws its unique acoustic magic from the rhythmic ostinatos. Nor was the composer “stingy” with the scoring: the keyboardists, for example, require two pianos and a celesta, while the percussion section is noteworthy in that, over the course of the piece, the five musicians play five tympanis, three bells, three xylophones, as well as castanets, a triangle, a tam-tam, a snare drum, a gong and the cymbals.

Orff subtitled the piece: “Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis”, which translates to “secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images”. This makes it abundantly clear that the composer had not envisioned for the piece to be performed in a concert format, but instead intended it to be staged as a theatrical work in which music, text, dance and visual arts combine to affect the viewer. Orff was convinced that permission to premiere the work would not be granted, since the piece was “not German”. On 8 June 1937, he was beside himself with anxiety at the world premiere held at Frankfurt’s opera house. (In line with the composer’s ideas, the piece was performed in a staged format.) Carmina Burana earned acclaim and was soon being presented in other cities in Germany, in addition to quickly becoming one of the most beloved pieces of music in the German Reich. International success came after World War II, and it has ever since been one of the most popular works of classical music that is most frequently performed as an oratorio, although numerous exciting dramatic productions have been created since the world premiere. A great many classical and modern performances and choreographies have emerged, as well as a cinematic version: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1975 film, created for Orff’s 80^th birthday. The 2018 Hungarian State Opera production, however, is the first to show viewers the entire work with 3D video mapping visuals.

Judit Kenesey

Magical images in 3D – an interview with the artistic directors of the production

For nearly 20 years, painter and organist Ágnes Zászkaliczky and conductor and cellist Tibor Bogányi have been working together on finding ways to attract a wider range of audience segments to classical concerts by enhancing their productions with singular visual experiences: Zászkaliczky selects projected material from paintings created expressly for the given musical piece. Their largest-scale effort to date is the super production Carmina Burana, commissioned by the Hungarian State Opera. The visuals of the production were created together with the world-renowned Budapest-based Freelusion Studio. Carmina Burana is not only the most popular and, to this day most frequently played, concert work in Carl Orff’s oeuvre, it might also lay claim to both superlatives for the entire musical literature of the 20^th century. What do you two think is the secret to the piece’s success?

T. B.: Orff worked with extremely simple devices that allowed him to achieve amazing effects: he used streamlined musical motifs and a great number of rhythmic formulas and repetitions, while the tone of the music evokes the medieval era. Taken together, these effects combine into material of such power that it grips the listener from the first moment and keeps them on the edge of their seats.

Á. Z.: Carmina Burana is an easily approachable and catchy piece. It has a kind of ancient, magical rhythm that few can resist. Almost everyone is familiar with the first movement, and it is presumably because of this that many people are curious to hear the complete work.

T. B.: I first encountered this piece as a conductor four or five years ago. Previously, I had avoided it for a long time, as I had heard quite a few inferior performances as a child. It was in connection with a tour of Switzerland that I first started to engage with it, and that was when I felt the piece’s power and when it occurred to me, even then, that if the work is so potent just in and of itself, it could be even further enhanced in a more complex performance.

Orff originally imagined that the piece would be performed as a theatrical work of total art, in a marriage of text, music, movement and visual spectacle. The OPERA’s production presents the piece in accordance with this concept. How was the production created?

T. B.: We worked out the basic concept together with librettist Attila Könnyű, and later, we found the Freelusion team, whose unique technical and artistic expertise allowed us to raise the concept of “visual concerts” to a new level. Through this collaboration, we developed real-time three-dimensional visual material that is in perfect harmony with the music.

Á. Z.: The essence of the concept is the fact that it is not the visuals that dictate the tempo, but rather the music: it is not the conductor’s task to “accompany” an existing film or animation, like at so many concerts of film music, for example. Instead, the music takes centre stage, and everything else adapts to it. We therefore had to create a form of animation that would be suitable for following the music live during the concert.

T. B.: A conductor can really best realise his full potential during a performance when nothing is influencing what tempos he is using, or the lengths of the rests and pauses, and so forth. The music is a living organism that has to be left with complete freedom: it’s not the music that has to align with the technology, but rather the technology that has to serve the music. Our creative team is unique in that we are able to think about the unity of music, visuals and movement in perfect balance. The person who will be manning the control booth during the

performances sees and follows the conductor through a monitor, and based on his beats – actually, a little bit earlier, since the image on the monitor lags behind the live production – inputs the various projection cues so that they appear on the stage at the appropriate places in the music. There are, however, parts where Ágnes has a free hand to play live with the visuals: she can play around with various effects, colour the animations and set the tempo for this as well. It is therefore critical to have at the console an expert with musical training who is at the same time also at home in the visual arts and who can – independently, freely, and in real time – “paint” images during certain parts of the piece. This means that no performance of Carmina Burana will be 100% the same as another: each evening will be a one-of-a-kind experience, never to be repeated. This technology makes it possible to revolutionise the way classical music is performed, as the video mapping is extremely well suited to allowing us to set up unique visual worlds for entire concerts and operas, without the need for backstage wings or complicated sets. This is an extraordinarily innovative thing that the world has already started to pay attention to, but this kind of special display technique is still in its infancy.  For this very reason, it also brings a great deal of prestige to the Hungarian State Opera to present a production with this technology, and we hope that this will not escape the notice of the international press.

Orff did not intend for there to be any dramaturgical cohesion between the 24 songs he selected. Nor have you attempted to turn the songs and texts into a story. What concept did you use as the basis for developing the visuals for the production?

Á. Z.: In the music, Orff followed and expressed the messages of the songs with extraordinary sensitivity. If we go beyond this and spell it out in the production or with dance, illustrating the text word for word, or if we were to project a “Hollywood film”, then the production would become banal and kitsch. It is for this reason that, starting from Orff’s own concept, we have selected “magical images” that reinforce the effect of the music without suppressing it, and which make the text more profound without illustrating it.

T. B.: The dynamic of the moods of the projection is organised along the lines of the major movements. Considering that we’re talking about a production that is entirely made up of Hungarians, from the creative staff to the performers, we primarily chose from the Hungarian system of motifs.

Á. Z.: We’ve built upon ancient symbols that can be found both in Hungarian and universal motif systems: these include the phoenix, meaning the symbol of rebirth and the eternal cycle, as well as the tree of life, the sun and the moon, and the lotus flower, which surprisingly is also found among Hungarian motifs, not just Eastern ones. Together with Tímea Papp, Freelusion’s superb choreographer, we decided which movements would also incorporate dance to be performed by the outstanding dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet, and the choreographies were created in late spring. The visual material appears in several dimensions, though: in addition to the spatial and planar surfaces, we also project onto the three soloists and the 100-strong chorus. We hope this will transport the audience to a magical virtual reality through Orff’s elemental music and the unique visual experience.