Nothing like a few bawdy songs about drinking and debauchery to make us forget the year that was.
True Concord Voices & Orchestra is closing out its spring βbubbleβ season this weekend with Carl Orffβs βCarmina Burana,β a series of songs penned by 13th century monks that express the beauty of springtime, the giddiness of love and a few tunes to toast to.
βThe texts and music of βCarmina Buranaβ are brimming with the hope, promise and revelries of love and springtime, having emerged from a cold, dark winter,β said True Concord Music Director Eric Holtan. βThis piece feels very timely as we look to a new dawn for humanity after a difficult year of pandemic. All of us long for the renewal of relationships and activities we love, and βCarmina Buranaβ speaks to that.β
The concert, which True Concord will perform three times this weekend, will feature the long-awaited encore of celebrated baritone Hugh Russell, who has made a career out of singing βCarmina Burana.β He was featured the last time True Concord performed βCamina Buranaβ in 2015, when the professional ensemble went by the name Tucson Chamber Artists.
βThis is a guy who essentially is making a career with this work,β Holtan said.
In addition to his 2015 performance in Tucson, Russell has performed βCarmina Buranaβ more than 100 times including with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras and symphonies including San Francisco, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Toronto.
βHeβs done it in Europe, with the LA Phil and with Tucson Chamber Artists and heβs coming back in the bubble to do this work,β Holtan said.
Russell arrived in Tucson on Friday, April 23, and was expected to isolate until late this week in keeping with True Concordβs COVID-19 protocols, although Russell, according to Holtan, is fully vaccinated against the virus.
The concert is part of the ensembleβs 2020-21 so-called bubble season, in which 18 chorus members were isolated throughout the six-week fall and four-week spring seasons. The group performed six concerts in the fall, four of them before live audiences, and four in the spring.
True Concord is performing Orffβs chamber version of βCarmina Burana,β the same version it performed in 2015.