AUDIENCE GUIDE 2018 - 2019 | Our 59th Season | Issue 4 Issue | Our Season 59th 2019 | March 15 – March 31, 2019 Music by Carl Orff Reduced Orchestration by Wilhelm Killmayer Four of Milwaukee’s most dynamic Indeed, it is the moon which has inspired performing arts companies are joining Lisa Schlenker’s haunting scenic design forces to present Carl Orff’s explosive and serves as the production’s predomi- cantata, Carmina Burana. Skylight is elated nant visual metaphor. Illuminated by Jason to work with artists from Danceworks Fassl’s brilliant lighting, the moon serves as Performance Company, Milwaukee Opera a timeless reminder of Fate’s ever- Theatre and Chant Claire Chamber Choir changing whims. In contrast, Shima Orans’ to bring this magnificent work to life for the modern, urban costume design under- first time in our nearly 60-year history. scores the contemporary relevance of the cantata’s themes. Tying the visual and lin- Although Carmina is most often presented guistic elements together are a series of in the concert hall, Orff himself called it a projections which serve to augment and scenic cantata, consisting of “secular songs elucidate the action onstage. for singers and choruses to be sung with instruments and magical images.” Amid this evocative milieu, an intergenerational cast of 62 performers - It is in this spirit of interdisciplinary 17 Skylight artists, seven Danceworks collaboration that the creative team has dancers, four Chant Claire guest approached the production, conceptualiz- artists and 25 Chant Claire Chamber Choir ing the piece as “total theatre” in which members, will fill the Cabot stage. Joining IN THIS ISSUE music, dance and text are inseparable.” them are six percussionists, two pianists, Skylight Artistic Associate and Carmina and one conductor, performing the thrilling Composer Carl Orff Stage Director Jill Anna Ponasik describes score in a reduced chamber orchestration it this way: “Is it an opera? No. Is it a musi- by Orff’s protégé, Wilhelm Killmayer. English Translations cal? No. Is it a concert? No. It’s a once-in- a-lifetime event that unites theatre, dance, In true “Skylight style,” the clarity of the The Manuscript music, and visual images in performance.” action and immediacy of emotion will take precedence. Says Skylight Artistic Director The Wheel of Fortune Carmina Burana consists of 25 musical Ray Jivoff, “Audiences will be riveted by sections, the most famous being the this Carmina. Each musical moment is instantly recognizable, thundering choral connected to an action onstage.” Stage anthem “O Fortuna,” often used in televi- Director Ponasik elaborates: “Carmina will sion commercials and film scores. Each of speak to you in a way that is immediate, Carmina’s movements relates to the turn- direct and instantly relatable. We are bring- ing of Fate’s wheel and the unpredictability ing Carmina Burana up close and will see of the human condition, touching on the full ourselves in the performers onstage. Their scope of existence from birth to death, and experiences are ours.” everything including joy to despair, love, fear, the seasons and the moon. This guide is available online at skylightmusictheatre.org Composer Carl Orff Carl Orff was born on July 10, 1895 in Munich to a musical family. He This production is generously showed an extraordinary proclivity for sponsored by creative endeavors from an early age, Jan Serr & John Shannon beginning piano lessons at five and and (with much assistance from his mother) writing his first novel at eight. As a child, he was enamored with theatrical performance and frequently staged puppet shows for his family. At sixteen, some of his first compositions, settings of German poetry, were pub- lished. It was also at this age that he Additional support for began to write large-scale works for Opening Weekend voice and orchestra, including a setting performances provided by of texts by Nietzsche and an opera in Herb Zien & Liz Levins. the style of Debussy. From 1912 to 1914, Orff attended the Academy of Music in Munich, where he found the curriculum old-fashioned and Carl Orff (1895-1982) Season Sponsors overly conservative. In 1917, he was drafted into military service, fighting in rise during the Third Reich: he kept his World War I until he was nearly killed grandmother’s Jewish ancestry a in a trench collapse on the Eastern closely-guarded secret and composed Front. Debilitated and unable to music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream continue his service, he took positions after Felix Mendelssohn’s music was as Music Director at the Court Theatre banned because he was Jewish. in Darmstadt and the National Theatre in Mannheim. Following the conclusion of World War II, Orff was questioned by the Orff returned to Munich in 1919 where American authorities about his he shifted the focus of his education to possible connections to Nazism. In an intense study of the old master order to maintain his social standing in composers of the 16th and 17th postwar German society, he centuries. In 1924, he co-founded the fraudulently claimed that he had been Günther School, an educational a founding member of the White Rose institution specializing in dance, resistance movement, a claim that gymnastics and music. For the next could not be disproven since Kurt several years, Orff balanced teaching Huber, Orff’s one-time friend and the Research/Writing by and composition, but it was not until actual founder of the movement, had Daniel Brylow for ENLIGHTEN, 1937 that he achieved major success been executed in 1943. This lie was with the premiere of his magnum opus, Skylight Music Theatre’s especially ironic because Orff had Carmina Burana. Education Program previously refused Huber’s wife’s plea Orff married four times. His first wife, to use his influence with the Nazis to Edited by Ray Jivoff the actress Alice Solscher, bore his intervene on her husband’s behalf, an [email protected] only child, Godela, in 1921. His act which he came to deeply regret. second wife was the German music In his later life, Orff continued to therapist, Gertrud Willert; his third was compose, though none of his works the novelist Luise Rinser. Orff attained Carmina’s popularity. He died remained married to his fourth wife, of cancer on March 29, 1982, aged 86. Liselotte Schmitz, until his death, after which she became the chairwoman of the Carl Orff Foundation for 24 years. 158 N. Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 A major point of controversy in Orff’s (414) 291-7811 life is his association with Nazism. www.skylightmusictheatre.org Though not a member of the party him- self, Orff is often considered to have been insufficiently resistant to Hitler’s AUDIENCE GUIDE | CARMINA BURANA The Orff Approach Many composers excel in the realm of In addition to composing, Orff also List of Works by Orff purely instrumental music, but Orff’s developed a highly influential method Lamenti (adapted from Monteverdi) music always contains a theatrical of musical education known as The Orpheus (1924/39) component. In the mid-1920s, he Orff Approach (Orff Schulwerk). The Klage der Ariadne (1925/40) began to formulate the conception of basis of this approach stems from the Tanz der Spröden (1925/40) his aesthetic ideal: a unification of commonalities Orff discerned between music, theatre, visual arts, poetry and music, language, and movement, Entrata for orchestra, after dance in a single work of art. This which he described as “elemental.” "The Bells" by William Byrd (1928/41) concept, termed Theatrum Mundi, was The Approach consists primarily of an attempt to reinvigorate modern Orff Schulwerk (Learning Pieces) structured improvisations on special- Musik für Kinder (1930–35/1950–54) music by returning to the sensibilities ized instruments, many of which are Tanzstück (1933) of Greek tragedy, which employed a percussion due to Orff’s belief that Gassenhauer similar synthesis of the arts. In this rhythm is a fundamental component of respect, Theatrum Mundi has much in human expression. Though the Trionfi (“Triumphs”) common with Richard Wagner’s Carmina Burana (1937) Approach can be practiced by children notion of the Total Artwork and with of all skill levels, its kinesthetic nature Catulli Carmina (1943) very early opera, both of which also lends itself especially well to the Trionfo di Afrodite (1953) emulated the Ancient Greek ideal. development of coordination and Märchenstücke (“Fairy tales”) Indeed, Orff’s most profound composi- motor skills in special needs children. Der Mond (1939) tional influence is undoubtedly Claudio Die Kluge (1943) Today, the Orff Approach is taught Monteverdi, whose L’Orfeo (1607) is the Ein Sommernachtstraum (1952/62) around the world, with professional earliest opera still regularly performed associations in America and New today. Orff was also heavily influenced Bairisches Welttheate Zealand. Though there are slight by Igor Stravinsky, and the similarities (Bavarian world theatre) differences in methodology, its between Carmina Burana and a work Die Bernauerin (1947) worldwide application is a testament like Stravinsky’s “opera-oratorio”, Astutuli (1953) to Orff’s belief in human potential: Comoedia de Christi Resurrectione (1956) Oedipus Rex (1927) are striking: both as Orff himself put it, “Every human Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus (1961) inhabit the middle ground between being has an artist inside them. This opera and concert piece, both make Theatrum Mundi (Total Theatre) possibility can either be encouraged or use of pared-down neoclassical Antigonae (1949) destroyed. My guiding principle has harmonies to convey blunt emotions Oedipus der Tyrann (1959) always been to encourage.” with clarity, and, unusually for a 20th Prometheus (1968) century work, both are sung in Latin – De temporum fine comoedia (1973/77) a language, in Stravinsky’s words, “not dead but turned to stone.” Claudio Monteverdi, Orff’s most significant musical influence Scenic design by Lisa Schlenker 2018-2019 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE English Translations UF DEM ANGER / IN THE MEADOW I-PRIMO VERE / IN THE SPRING Floret silva The noble forest is in bloom.