CARMINA BURANA

I've liked Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for many years, since secondary school. 

I've only seen and heard it produced once, in Wellington back in 1979 as a New Zealand Ballet and Impulse Dance Theatre production. The music was taped but the sound system was pretty good. I remember the principal dancer Jon Trimmer performing the Olim lacus colueram (once I swam in lakes): Once I swam in lakes.  He was dressed as a jester and was being roasted on a spit (the swan). This was a very powerful performance and I wish that I had a video clip of it.

I heard, in a National Radio interview yesterday that Carmina Burana is going to be performed in Aucklands Holy Trinity Cathedral by three choirs -  the NZ Secondary Students' Choir, New Zealand Youth Choir, and Voices New Zealand  - forming a massed choir with over 150 singers.  I wish I could be there to hear it. This, to me is the best use of grand churches - not the silly wittering from the altar and the pulpit but the majestic sounds of the organ and choirs.