Sunday, July 09, 2006

Andalucian Images of Carmina Burana

It was quite an interesting take on Carl Orff's Carmin Burana, one that I am not convinced worked. The recorded music was interspersed with impassioned flamenco dancing and the occasional solos by key members of the troop. There were also various contraptions on stage which several dancers suspended themselves from. A couple of dwarves and the stallions completed the spectacle.

The flamenco dancing was just stunning. The dancers beautiful and charismatic. I was enchanted by the way the women danced in their white dresses with impossibly long frilly trains, which became at times an extra dance partner. I loved the way they kicked the skirt from side to side. Unfortunately, I felt that too much time had been spent on the dance, and when the principle dancer tapped her way over the crucifix and was then cricified, I soon became bored.

Given that Carmina Borana was a quick tour of medieval life, beginning and ending with O Fortuna, with stops via the taverna and affairs of the heart, and includes one of the most lovely prayers to the feminine divine, I felt more attention could have been made through props and costume to reflect the vivid Andalucian life; as it was the costumes were white, or black. There were heavy religious overtones, which I wouldn't have minded had they included the joyful and celebratory and down right lacivious to balance the dirges. The Andalucian stallions were beautiful, but wasted in two excursions one of which they had four dancers prancing in front of them. The cast of 30 advertised were in actual fact, half of that, which given the restrictions of space on the stage was not necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately, I felt the performance did not do what it said on the tin, which was a real shame.

It was a missed opportunity to show that medieval life that Orff put to music, is not that different to life now. Major concerns of living with the hands that fate deals one are universal. Drinking and love are still the ways people try to offset the feeling that there is no such thing as a happy ending and fate really is out to get you.

After going to the theatre last night and the cinema this afternoon, I realised that my Sunday morning habit of going to the cinema first thing in the morning is a truly excellent way of avoid other patrons. People talked all the way through the performance and rustled their way through snacks of all textures and sounds, not to mention the mobile phones flashing and beeping throughout. My authoritarian leanings are coming out, I'm afraid, patience still is not one of my virtues.

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