Carmina burana, the most pagan cantata in the repertoire passed through the crazy imagination of Carlus Padrissa. Perhaps it was the universe – and the Camera agency – that brought together the visceral Fura dels Baus with the work of Carl Orff, a 1936 innovation about goliard chants, poems from the 12th and 13th centuries that speak in Latin and German of wine, sex and earthly pleasures. The rest is history, a successful one: 350,000 spectators on three continents since it premiered in 2009 at L’Auditori de Barcelona and the Donostia Musical Fortnight.
TÃvoli de Barcelona is putting the show on hold for the third time starting tomorrow and for two weeks. It is the one that creates the most adherents to the operatic cause, since on Carrer Casp and with the publicity that is the score itself – “O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis” (Oh Fortune, you are variable like the Moon) -, it gives to the great audience the impression of going to see a musical.
“It’s a music that we already carry inside. Connects with the body’s atavism. Because our bodies also live connected to this displayer that jumps with the arrival of spring. That’s why it works so well at this time of the year”, says an effervescent Padrissa who, he confesses, is already too lazy to see the piece again.
At the Tivoli, the eight-metre diameter cylinder that surrounds the musicians and on which images illustrating the texts (the moon, floral ecstasy…) are projected. The singers will hang from the classic furred cranes or immerse themselves in water, wine, vintage or fire.
“There is always talk of renovating the assembly, but it has become a classic and we will not touch it, it has the appeal of vintage, with the work of the cartoonist who gives it a lot of personality”, claims de Moià .
It was at the Orff-Zentrum in Munich, in a meeting with other theater authors, that Padrissa learned from one of those who had come to work with Orff that the composer understood that his Carmina burana was not only to be played, but “for fantastic images”.
In total there are more than 50 artists including musicians (pianos, flutes, double bass, timpani and abundant percussion), the choir and the cast, which this time will be double (the casting took place in Madrid), and all together, directed by the maestro César Bela
Spring arrives and thus the first menstruation of the protagonist, a young woman who gets ready to see her lover and almost experiences an orgasm.
Orff pays tribute to the existence that comes from nature, that of two and two make four: we came to this world to eat, to have sex, to reproduce and to be happy as much as possible. It’s about the essentials. From this, its success”, continues Padrissa. “My dramaturgy indicates this ritual of life, the time of humanity, which is also that of the other species: the winter has passed, the thaw comes and the flowers and smells come out… and even I, I’m already 64, I keep going crazy. I understand it as an initiation ritual”.
The furer now has a macro show for 60,000 people in Monterrey, Mexico. “It’s a collaborative thing with a thousand participants. Every now and then I like to go back to the Olympics style. Take the people who participate and put them in a Roman circus, which works like a particle accelerator.”
