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Ellen and I sang in a performance of the Carmina Burana back in college, and I have to say that it was one of the most fantastic musical experiences I've ever had. With so many musicians onstage playing and singing at once, there is created a sound so thick and intricate that you can literally feel it wrap itself around you like a blanket. It becomes nearly impossible not to dance to the primal and seductive rhythms on which the music is heavily based. At points the work is loud and barbaric, then sweet and melodic, then humorous, like in this lament by a once-lovely swan, now about to become a meal:

Once I lived on lakes,
once I looked beautiful
when I was a swan.

Misery me!
Now black
and roasting fiercely!

The servant is turning me on the spit;
I am burning fiercely on the pyre:
the steward now serves me up.

Even as an audience member, it's hard to stay in your seat while the orchestra and choir take you on an almost-pagan journey through the world of medieval Europe. However, I suspect that it's the "almost-pagan" part that resulted in so many empty seats during the second half of the show, on which the Carmina Burana was performed. I would like to think that the seat-owners couldn't contain themselves and were dancing wildly to the driving rhythms in the back aisle - but somehow I don't think that was the case. Regardless, among the brave, elderly audience members who stuck around, many of them were bobbing their heads and humming along to the famous, raucous melodies.

At some points, humming along to the familiar tunes was difficult, as there were several spots where the orchestra and chorus seemed under-rehearsed. The danger of not rehearsing a musical behemoth like the Carmina Burana, is that the players eyes are glued to their music and not on the conductor - who is responsible for cutting off the choir and orchestra in very specific and dramatic spots. This lack of practice resulted in several singers and players sharing unexpected solos out of turn.

In spite of the obvious mistakes, the Knoxville Symphony and Choral Society succeeded in bringing the exuberant and expressive Carmina Burana to life upon the Tennessee Theatre stage (mostly thanks to the exceptional headlining soloists). In a way, the flub-ups made the performance even more human & real, and living a "real" life is a large part of what the Carmina Burana is all about.