Carmina Burana

In 1803, in a dusty monastery in Bavaria, a librarian re-discovered a manuscript not seen since the 13th century. Later named the Carmina Burana, the manuscript contained 254 poems and dramatic texts. Believed to be the works of student and clergy, researchers date some of the texts back to the 11th century. Curators who started to transcribe the Latin, German, and French works were surprised to find irreverent, satirical, and sometimes risqué themes, abounding throughout the Carmina Burana.

In 1936, Carl Orff set 24 of the poems to music, quickly turning it into a popular piece of classical repertoire. Just over an hour long, the composition has been featured in film, television, video games, and covered or sampled by Michael Jackson, and even Ozzy Osbourne. During World War II, Orff remained in Germany and continued writing music until his death in 1982, but he never found success again as he had with Carmina Burana.

When choreographer Nicolo Fonte was asked about his approach to creating this version of Carmina Burana, he said, “In tackling an iconic score, such as Carl Orff’s 20th Century masterpiece Carmina Burana, one of my first considerations was scale — how to match the massiveness of this powerful music.

I had always envisioned an integrative production where both music and dance share equal parts. A world of visual beauty set in the lyricism and audacity of this scenic cantata, I liken my version to a medieval etching blasted with 21st Century athleticism and speed.”

Serenade was my first ballet in the United States. Soon after my arrival in America [in 1933], Lincoln Kirstein, Edward M.M. Warburg, and I opened the School of American Ballet in New York. As part of the school Curriculum, I started an evening ballet class in stage technique, to give the students some idea of how dancing on stage differs from classwork. Serenade evolved from the lessons I gave… The class contained the first night, seventeen girls and no boys… The next class contained only nine girls; the third six. I choreographed to the music with the pupils I happened to have at a particular time. Boys began to attend the class and they were worked into the pattern. One day, when all the girls rushed off the floor area we were using as a stage, one of the girls fell and began to cry. I… kept this bit in the dance. Another day, one of the girls was late for class, so I left that in too…Many people think there is a concealed story in the ballet. There is not. There are, simply, dancers in motion to a beautiful piece of music. The only story is the music’s story, a Serenade, a dance, if you like, in the light of the moon.

– George Balanchine, from “Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets”

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Balanchine is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein, whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. The School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, was the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration until October 11, 1948 when the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983.

A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world.