Carmina Burana April 24, 2022

I had already made the decision to forego my choir’s spring production of the Brahms Requiem. I had sung it in both German and English many times, and the choir had rehearsed most of it in spring 2021 before having to abort for COVID. Besides, as lovely as it is, the work is about death, and two years into the pandemic, I had had it. 

Up popped a different opportunity – singing Carmina Burana with the Marin Symphony Chorus. Carmina was not a work that I had ever aspired to sing. It is relentlessly blaring, tonal, and bawdy, not my usual cup of tea. But this year I needed something completely different. I needed the rhythmic jolt of singing my guts out!

I contacted my friend Abigail who sings with the Chorus and she encouraged me to audition. So I did, I was accepted, and we’re off. In a surprisingly small number of masked rehearsals, we learned the music, which was pretty easy, and the words, which were not. As our performances drew near, the masks came off and we joined the orchestra on the stage of the Marin County Civic Center Complex, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

O Fortuna! In this spin of the wheel, how lucky am I!