HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra will stage a concert featuring Carmina Burana, a scenic cantata by German composer Carl Orff, tomorrow.
The cantata, composed in 1936, is based on 24 poems found in the medieval Latin collection Carmina Burana.
The songs are about the wheel of fortune, the joy of the return of spring, drinking, gambling and love, apparently simple but in reality deep reflections on human experiences and humanity.
Orff structured the cantata into five major sections containing 25 movements for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, boy's choir, choir, and orchestra.
O Fortuna, a complaint against fate and Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck, is the most famous movement which opens and closes the cycle.
Carmina Burana is thought to be the cantata staged most often in the 20th century.
Renowned conductor Tran Nhat Minh, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, will wield the baton for the Korean Children Voices in HCM City and the HSBO Choir and Symphony Orchestra.
They will be accompanied by soloists Daniel Saether and Thorbjorn Gulbrandsoy of Norway who have been in Viet Nam for several years and soprano Vo Thi Ngoc Tuyen.
Tuyen is studying for a master's degree in vocal music at the HCM City Conservatory. Last year she won the third prize in the National Chamber and Opera Singing Competition held in Ha Noi.
Counter-tenor Saether, a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire in UK, has performed in Norway, Britain, and the US while baritone Gulbrandsoy graduated from the Grieg Academy in Norway and Royal Academy of Music in London, the UK.
The show will begin at 8pm at the HCM City Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square, District 1.
Tickets costing VND100,000-200,000 are available at the box office. — VNS