Carmina Burana & The Medium

OCT 15-23, 2011

Carmina Burana
Scenic oratorio for soloists, choruses and orchestra, dancers and acrobats
By Carl Orff
Premiered 1937 in Frankfurt
Sung in Latin, German and English with English translations projected above the stage
Running time is about an hour.

The season opens with an all-new production of the rarely-staged Carmina Burana. The MOT Chorus combines with the MOT Children’s Chorus and Rackham Symphony Choir to form an ensemble of over 100 to sing Carl Orff’s powerful “O Fortuna!” The chorus is joined by soloists, acrobats from Cirque du Soleil, Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, and the MOT Orchestra to create a dazzling multi-sensory spectacular.

The Medium
Opera in two acts
Music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
Premiered 1946 in New York City
Sung in English
Running time is about an hour.

Carmina will be paired with Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera The Medium, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Written in 1946, the dramatic thriller tells of a charlatan psychic who cheats her customers by holding fake séances, only to begin seeing ghosts herself.

Psychic Readings by Boston Tea Room
Wednesday, October 19

The Wednesday October 19th performance of Carmina Burana and The Medium will feature fortune teller readers from metro Detroit’s Boston Tea Room!

Family owned Boston Tea Room is Michigan’s oldest and most respected venue for psychic readings and intuitive counselling services.

Stop by prior to curtain or during intermission for your personal reading!

Heatherleigh and her associates will be located in the grand lobby of the Detroit Opera House.

Sets and Costumes made possible by a generous gift from Ford Motor Company.

The 2011 Fall Season is made possible by Ford Motor Company.

The Medium is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE MEDIUM

Setting: Madame Flora’s parlor

Act I
Monica, the daughter of Madame Flora (“Baba”), and Toby, a mute boy who lives with them, are playing while Madame Flora is away. When she returns, she is furious that they are not ready for the séance she has planned, but Monica prevents her from striking Toby. They busily prepare; when the three guests arrive, Monica pretends to be the teenage daughter of one and the baby son of another, while Toby works the mechanical devices that control the lights and furniture. Suddenly, Madame Flora stops the séance and sends the customers away, and tells Monica she felt a spectral hand clutch her throat during the séance. She suspects Toby at first, but as Monica tries to comfort her, Flora hears another voice that resembles Monica’s performance at the séance.

Act II
A few days later, Monica is watching Toby perform a puppet show for her; then she dances for him. Monica realizes he is trying to tell her that he loves her so, pretending to be his voice, she says it for him. She runs off as Flora reenters; the medium tries to cajole Toby into confessing that it was he who touched her during the séance, or that he knows something about it. When he does not answer she begins to whip him but is interrupted by the doorbell. The three clients from the previous séance enter and Flora gives them their money back and tries to convince them they have been cheated, even showing them the wires and microphones, but they refuse to believe her. She throws them out and, despite Monica’s protests, throws out Toby, too. Monica goes to her room while Flora, frightened by what she has experienced, drinks herself to sleep. Toby returns but Flora awakes, and he hides from her. Flora, thinking he is the spirit she felt, shoots him.

CARMINA BURANA

Carmina Burana is a scenic oratorio composed to the texts of Goliard poems from the 13th century. The manuscript containing these verses was discovered in 1803 at a Bavarian monastery in Benediktbeuern; the term “Burana” in the title is the Latin adjective identifying this location. The subtitle of the work means “Secular songs for soloists and chorus, accompanied by instruments and supplemented by scenery.” Although there are a number of contexts for human interaction in some of the pieces, there is no plot continuity or overall dramatic action in this series of songs. Composer Carl Orff envisioned Carmina Burana with optional action and dance, although he did not provide written instructions as to how it should be staged. Thus, it has been presented in a wide variety of ways and, although most frequently seen in concert form, the work is extremely theatrical and adapts well for the stage.

The medieval Goliards (the term is a nickname meaning “big mouths”) were scholars, monks and priests who had abandoned conformity to the Catholic Church. Individualists in a time when such behavior was considered heresy, they lived vagrant lives, begging, thieving, and singing. They wrote their verses mostly in Latin, although portions of their texts are in the vernacular languages of the areas where they lived. Their best poetry is a frank avowal of their pleasures, their simple zest in living, and the joys of an earthy existence.

The manuscript discovered in the Benediktbeuern monastery contained the most extensive collection of Goliard poetry ever found. Its authors were various and anonymous, and it is surprising that a monastery’s library contained a volume of such scurrilous material. The justification for this is that the volume had originally belonged to a secular court and had been assigned to the monastery for archival purposes.

In Carmina Burana, Orff chose to set only a portion of the manuscript to music. The melodic language he employed mixes folksong elements from his native Bavaria with a parody of Gregorian plainchant, matching the ridicule of religious forms found in the texts. The musical fabric is bold and colorful. Its strong rhythmic emphasis demands an enlarged percussion section. Although these effects are striking, they are not complicated. The melodic material is tonal and straightforward, unadorned by counterpoint or formal variation. The harmonic effects are reduced to bare essentials. All of these choices magnificently enhance the poetry’s attention to what is simple, sensuous, vigorous, and direct.

Orff chose to organize the texts of Carmina Burana into three contrasting sections: exploring themes of renewal and sexual awakening in Early Spring; alienation, debauchery, and corruption in In The Tavern; and both unrequited and requited love in The Court of Love. These three groups of poems are flanked by identical musical settings of the same poem “O Fortuna” (Oh Fortune), bemoaning man’s fate as a mere pawn of destiny’s mighty and often cruel hand.

Carmina Burana has won a firm place in the musical repertoire of Western culture. It has enjoyed enormous popularity and has often been adapted effectively for theatrical purposes for both stage and film.

Sections

I. Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)

II. Primo Vere (Early Spring) Uf dem Anger (On the Green)

III. In Taberna (In the Tavern)

IV. Cour d’amours (The Court of Love)

V. Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)

Madame Flora: Melissa Parks
Monica/Soprano: Andriana Chuchman
Monica Understudy: Angela Theis
Mrs. Gobineau: Tanya Roberts
Mr. Gobineau/Baritone: Marian Pop
Tenor: Jason Wickson
Mrs. Nolan: Sarah Nisbett
Toby: Jason Vanden Heuvel

Acrobats: Sita Acevedo, Francois Isabelle, Emilie Livingston, Joseph Pinzon, Laurence Racine

When Puccini died in 1924, a musical era died with him. Four years later Gian Carlo Menotti migrated to America and began formal music studies in Philadelphia. Ultimately as both composer and impresario, Menotti would dedicate his life to revitalizing the operatic world. He wrote his own English language librettos, set them to attractive melodies, tailored works for the new media of radio and television, stubbornly produced his operas on Broadway, and founded three music festivals. Helped by these bold innovations, many of his works achieved popular success. The Medium, The Telephone, and The Consul were Broadway hits. Amahl and the Night Visitors is a Christmas tradition and possibly the most often-performed opera in the world.

Beginnings
Menotti began writing music at age six, and by age 11 had written an opera. In doing duty as both composer and librettist for The Death of Pierrot, he established a model for the rest of his career. (Although Menotti remarked that Pierrot is notable mainly because all the characters kill themselves during the last act.) At 17 he won a scholarship to study at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and, while there, composed what is regarded to be his first opera, Amelia Goes to the Ball.

New Media: Radio, TV, Film, Broadway
In 1939 Menotti composed the radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief, which NBC produced on air. The Medium, an eerie chamber opera about a fake psychic, was produced on Broadway, on film, and on television. The Consul followed on Broadway in 1950, won a Pulitzer Prize for Music, and created a sensation in London the following year. On December 24, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors had its NBC Television premiere and became an instant Christmas classic.

The Medium
The Medium, a one-hour opera in two acts, was commissioned by Columbia University and premiered in 1946. It got its first professional production the following year, and in 1948 was produced on live television. In 1951 Menotti directed a film noir version of The Medium starring Anna Maria Alberghetti. Menotti described The Medium as “the tragedy of a woman caught between two worlds, a world of reality which she cannot wholly comprehend and the supernatural world in which she cannot believe.” Michigan Opera Theatre first performed The Medium in 1973 at Music Hall. Sal Mineo directed, and starred as Toby.

Marie Powers sings “Afraid, am I Afraid?” from Menotti’s 1950 filmed version of The Medium.

Impresario
Menotti founded three music festivals: Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. The three-week Spoleto festivals have a yearly audience approaching 500,000.

Legacy
According to NPR contributor Miles Hoffman, Menotti ranks among the greatest composers of the 20th century. Hoffman makes his case on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Play Morning Edition

Menotti Timeline
1911 Born in Cadegliano
1917 Begins writing music
1924 Enters the Milan Conservatory
1928 Enters Curtis Institute of Music
1939 Broadcast premiere of the radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief
1946 The Medium premieres
1947 The Telephone is a Broadway hit.
1950 The Consul is a Broadway hit and wins a Pulitzer Prize.
1951 Amahl and the Night Visitors, written for television, premieres on Christmas Eve.
1954 The Saint of Bleeker Street premieres
1958 Founds the Festival of the Two Worlds (Festival dei Due Mondi)
1977 Founds the Spoleto Festival USA
2007 Dies in Monte Carlo

Carmina Burana and The Medium

basil – Farmington Hills

WOW!!! Saturday night’s performance was awesome!!!! All treats and great tricks! O Fortuna was good to the D last night! The chorus blew out the house! Bravo MOT!

  David & Christine – Romeo

There was magic created tonight, Mr. DiChiera. It began on the stage & then over the whole theater. I could have sat & watched & been transported all over  again. Thank you.

Tom – Mt. Clemens

What a terrific performance! A true feast for the eyes and ears. Could see this again and again.

Lee – Warren

Carmina Burana and also The Medium was my most memorable opening night yet. If you’d like to introduce your children or a reluctant friend to opera, I would highly recommend this performance. As Cirque du Soleil performs throughout Carmina, there is not a dull moment for anyone.

A favorite part of any night at the Opera House is Mr. DiChiera welcoming everyone to the venue. His passion is obvious, and gets me excited about the performance. I think each opera is one of his “kids.” He is a wonderful man.

Barbara – Southfield

One word says it all: UNBELIEVABLE!!! The whole evening. Emotionally charged, fabulous music, and never-seen-before staging, gorgeous dancing and special effects. Don’t miss the chance to see this performance.

Dr. Conrad L. Donakowski – Okemos

For pizazz and profundity together, your productions of THE MEDIUM and CARMINA BURANA equalled any. I’ve seen both in New York. CARMINA BURANA I saw on Orff’s home turf, Munich, Bavaria. You could give them all lessons.

Jackie – Dearborn

A brilliant decision by Dr. DiChiera to open the season with this spectacular performance. I hope it will draw other audience groups that have avoided “high brow” operas and open their eyes to the truly grand experience of seeing opera live. Kudos to the MOT! I only wish I could go again today!

Tracy Worcester – Ypsilanti

The staging on The Medium & Carmina Burana was absolutely stunning. It is my sincere and fervent hope that a recording of this will be made available for sale; the sheer creativity and uniqueness of this combination of staging and performance would make an ability to view and review it simply invaluable to me.

I was astonished both by the work of the dance choreographer (and a full formal bravo goes out to them), but also to the vocal quality the actress playing Monica brought to the stage in both The Medium and Carmina Burana.

Carmina Burana has been my mental soundtrack ever since the performance, which is a source of delight, to me. (:

Again, bravo!

Adel – Commerce Twp

I attended yesterday performance and I was absolutely blown away! The incorporation of opera with ballet and the circus was an extremely successful experiment. I was lucky to be seated five rows down from the stage and I observed how every single detail was executed to perfection. The masterful execution of “O Fortuna” by the chorus moved me to tears. Every single performer did an amazing job, the chorus, the opera singers, the dancers, the acrobats, even the folks that did the behind the scene work should’ve come to the stage and been applauded. They truly deserved it; the stage, the costumes, the special effects, and the orchestra were incredible. A thousand wow’s wouldn’t suffice to describe the experience. A++

Sydney – Grosse Pointe Park

This was the performance I’ve seen on the MOT stage in 15 years. A BLOCKBUSTER! What really worked was the synergy between “The Medium” and “Carmina Burana” and the words. Question: Why were so many people seated for standing ovation?

Elaine Lovitt – Gladwin

What a great performance to start the Fall season! I’d never seen a staged production of ‘Carmina Burana’ and this one blew me away. The highlight for me was Joseph Pinzon’s performance on the aerial silks.

David – Greensboro, North Carolina

MOT’s production of Carmina Burana was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Thank you, Mr. DiChiera, for an incredible evening.

Maggie in Plymouth – Plymouth

This is the first time I have ever sat back at the end of an MOT performance and thought, “I would like to see that again.” The links between “The Medium” and “Carmina Burana” were inspired, and the whole afternoon was magical, spooky, and amazing–and of course, well sung and wonderfully staged. Well done, MOT, thank you.