Carmina Burana Review

What I liked: Most of you are likely familiar with the exciting music of Carmina Burana. If you aren't, you certainly are aware of the Black Rider music from Lord of the Rings. The musical performance was phenomenal. There was a full orchestra and the four boxes closest to the stage were jam packed with a choir from a local university. The music was exciting though sadly not all of it sounded like black riders or the sith from Star Wars. The dancers were excellent and one of the ballerinas I really liked from the last ballet was back in a lead role. Also there was a surprising shortage of tights and tu'tus. The ballerinos almost all wore real pants and most of the ballerinas were in leggings. The choreography was well done. On the spectrum from classical ballet to modern dance it was just a little left of central. There were funny parts and, for having a very limited set, the dancers made good use of it. There was lots of cool jumping and leaping. It was an enjoyable evening.

What I didn't: Given the clear association between Carmina Burana and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings zou can imagine how excited I was when I found out that it was actually a ballet. It conjured images of black riders and jedi in toe shoes. Disappointingly there were neither. I actually spent most of the ballet very very confused. The only thing I remembered about the text was that there was supposed to be a song about a goose. There was. So, while ballet can be quite effective at conveying the spirit of a story and the larger plot points, it is quite limited in its ability to deliver finer meaning. It turns out that there are three distinct small stories which have nothing to do with each other other than that they are each the story of a monks fall from grace. I would have appreciated some sort of a synopsis in the program or something. While I appreciated the lack of tights, I was not that into the rest of the costuming. The goose song had really fun costumes. The rest of the costumes were really just odd. The cast included both the professional ballerinas and some from the university. Im glad they had the opportunity to perform and I felt proud of myself for thinking I could pick out which ones were professional.

Who should watch this? The ballet is slightly less child friendly than if it were the ballerinas with lightsabers production I was hoping for but it wasnt scandalous.

Would I watch it again? It was lots of fun, if I saw it again I would want to see a new artistic interpretation.