Linus Lerner conducts the Southern Arizona symphony orchestra along with students from Marana High School and Rincon/University High School during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra along with Marana High School and Rincon/University High School students performan the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Choir members from the Southern Arizona Sympony Orchestra, Marana High School and Rincon/University High School sing during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
A violinist plays with the rest of an orchestra composed of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra along with students and faculty from Marana High School and Rincon/University High School during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
TSO Principal Percussionist Homero CerΓ³n was among the TSO musicians who helped Borderlands brew a special βCarmina Buranaβ beer, but CerΓ³n said they pretty much wathced Borderlands brewers make the beer.
Choir members sing during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
Linus Lerner conducts the Southern Arizona symphony orchestra along with students from Marana High School and Rincon/University High School during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
Saprano Liliana del Conde belts out a high note during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra along with Marana High School and Rincon/University High School students performan the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
Choir members from the Southern Arizona Sympony Orchestra, Marana High School and Rincon/University High School sing during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
A violinist plays with the rest of an orchestra composed of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra along with students and faculty from Marana High School and Rincon/University High School during a performance of the opera Carmina Burana at Marana High School, on Nov. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star
Hugh Russell infused the "Carmina Burana" with theatrics and an exquisite voice.
Photo: Larry Lapidus
Soprano Hye Jung Lee, who is quickly making a name for herself, will make her "Carmina Burana" debut this weekend.
Courtesy Hye Jung Lee
TSO Principal Percussionist Homero CerΓ³n was among the TSO musicians who helped Borderlands brew a special βCarmina Buranaβ beer, but CerΓ³n said they pretty much wathced Borderlands brewers make the beer.
Itβs a pretty sure bet that 9.9 out of every 10 people in the audience at this weekendβs performance of βCarmina Buranaβ will have never heard it done in the chamber version, as the Tucson Chamber Artists will perform it.
TCA Conductor and Music Director Eric Holtan will be one of them.
βI only know the fully orchestrated version so this is going to be a new experience for me, too,β Holtan said late last week.
Itβs a good thing baritone Hugh Russell will be among the trio of soloists for the TCAβs three performances. Russell has performed the chamber version several times including with a choral group in his adopted home of Chicago.
βThere are many things that sound similar to the full orchestral version,β said the 41-year-old Canada native. βI think it is easier to think of it as a completely different beast rather than think about what is really different and whatβs not there.β
The chamber version, a highlight of the third annual Tucson Desert Song Festival that kicked off last weekend, will be performed by 32 members of Holtanβs TCA professional choir, a pair of pianists and six percussionists led by Homero Ceron, principal percussionist for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
The fully orchestrated version has 10 to 15 times more instrumentalists, including a full complement of string players. The choir in that version can number well beyond 100. Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra was the last to perform the work in Tucson, bringing in choristers from Tucson Girls Chorus, the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, the Catalina Foothills High School Chorus and the Catalinas Community Chorus. When you added in the full contingent of the orchestra, there were 240 people on the Catalina Foothills High School stage and balconies for the November 2009 performance.
But Russell, who says he will be on his 114th βCarmina Buranaβ by the time he takes the stage Friday night, says you wonβt be missing much without the full orchestration.
βYou still get that sense of all the percussion going on in this sort of clanging, wonderful cacophony,β he said. βItβs different but itβs the same intention.β
Soprano Hye Jung Lee will make her βCarmina Buranaβ debut this weekend β her second role debut in Tucson during the 2015 song festival. She was a last-minute replacement last weekend for the ailing soprano Heidi Grant Murphy to sing Straussβs βDer Rosenkavalierβ and Poulencβs βGloria.β
She was familiar with the Strauss having sung it while she was a graduate student at Indiana University in 2012. But she had never sung the Poulenc. (See review of Sunday’s concert and interview with Hye Jung at tucson.com/calientetunedin)
βItβs so great in its way as itβs very much like a ritual whether itβs sacred or secular,β she said of βCarmina Burana,β then added that being part of a big choral event like this weekendβs concerts βfeels like I get to be a part of some kind of community, bigger than myself, rather than just playing my character as in opera.β
Holtan said the essence of Orffβs score remains unchanged in the stripped-down version.
βWe still get the full array of the colors and volume of the percussion, but all of the colors of the orchestra the violins and bassoons are all executed by the piano parts,β he said. βMany people walk away from βCarmina Buranaβ feeling like they went through something very physical or visceral. But my sense is that visceral feeling, youβre going to feel it more with just the piano and the other percussion instruments. Without all the other colors involved, I think it is going to be a more visceral experience for people.β
Photos: SASO partnered with local high schoolers to perform first show of Carmina Burana in Marana