2004, Orff's Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana featured DVS, with the Preston Symphony Orchestra

Carmina Burana featured DVS, with the Preston Symphony Orchestra

Carmina Burana

In a break from our usual practice, 2004 started with rehearsals for Carmina Burana, because there would not be much time after Brigadoon before we had to perform with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra. We were very glad to start with a new pianist, Gerard Banner from Hurstbridge Uniting Church. We also had Alan Cook lined up to rehearse the choir, but when his wife got a contract in Italy he was gone. Ian did quite a bit of chasing trying to find other choirs who might be interested in joining with us, and eventually located one in Warragul who had done it before and another in Bendigo who were doing their first ever work.

As part of this preparation, a number of us joined the Monash University Choral Society to assist with their production. We attended an all-day rehearsal and one evening prior to the performance under Trevor Jones, who was an outstanding conductor. This was also not without problems. It's amazing how choirs manage to cope with poor lighting, inaccurate singers standing next to you, physical discomfort and lots of other complications, and still sound great.

The work was performed in Brunswick with two pianos and five percussionists - a very impressive performance. It was hoped that some of them would join us for the DVS performances, but that didn't eventuate. One of the percussionists was James Lewis, who had often played in the Eltham Orchestra at our performances.

Orff's Carmina Burana (2), Mussorgsky's Polovtsian Dances and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy

Before the dust had settled on Brigadoon, rehearsals for Carmina Burana resumed, preparing for a performance in September. We were very pleased to have a choir from Warragul come down to assist with the Heidelberg performance. The performance was at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar and we had the girls from the school doing the children's part. The place was packed, the performance was tight, and it was a real buzz; another of the real high spots of the year.

After the Heidelberg performance, there was a hiatus when a smaller number of the choir had some fun rehearsing lighter music.

Carmina Burana proved to be a difficult piece. One reason was the Latin, and then there were the tricky rhythms and the tempi. However, it was one of the most exciting works we'd done, but there was a high attrition rate, and only forty were there to sing with the orchestra. Fortunately other choirs and members of other choirs came to assist as a large choir is necessary.

Auditions were held, and the soprano and tenor parts were shared, with Daniel Gare chosen as the baritone role, Ebony Hack and Kristy Swift as our sopranos, and Matthew Davine and Campbell Reiter, a counter-tenor, for the tenor roles. For the piano performances Michael Try did the baritone role and Lesley Walton the soprano, with Campbell Reiter, from the second orchestral performance, helping out.

Another problem was doing a copyright show. Never before having done an oratorio still under copyright, it wasn't until after the first performance that we made enquiries and the copyright holders were not impressed, particularly when they found we were performing a reduced arrangement. In spite of getting less than twenty to a performance at Ringwood, we had to pay as if the 400-seat theatre was full. There was no profit from Carmina Burana and the Seymour performance was cancelled.

However, we found the Monash Chorale (a different group from the Monash Choral Society) was also doing it, so we combined with them for a performance at Robert Blackwood Hall, using a new arrangement for Symphonic Band - no strings. One of the singers brought his Seeing Eye dog and Braille score. Unfortunately, when we arrived for the performance we found the Monash Chorale was doing the parts written for a small choir, which meant we weren't singing half the work. It would have been better the other way round as their sopranos were incapable of singing the pianissimo top Bs, which we'd been able to do. Later we found the conductor had intended us to sing in everything. A minor stir occurred when one of the Uni. students fainted during the soft baritone solo and had to be taken out. In spite of these and other difficulties, it was a fine concert.

For our other performances we hired a professional pianist and a percussionist, and that worked well. We ended up with thirty singers at Mornington, which seemed like not enough, but we managed to present a good concert. We had an audience of forty-two, which didn't quite fill the place, but wasn't too bad, though not enough to cover costs. We started with the Polovtsian Dances, and then had solos from Judith O'Shea, Lucas Richter (who pleasantly surprised those who hadn't heard him before) and Diane Morgan. Then the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, which we were later to perform with the Preston Orchestra, followed by Carmina Burana and this went really well. It felt really tight and the professional pianist and percussion helped. At the end we got a standing ovation, which was splendid.

The Bendigo performance was exciting. The venue at the University had been triple booked, something to do with the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, so we had to switch to the Anglican Cathedral. After that was sorted out, we rehearsed in the afternoon, then towards the end the Bendigo organisers wanted a rehearsal of the sextet. No-one had mentioned that we were doing that. Graham assumed they had a group from Bendigo, and so Graham took over Tim's part and Lucas sang his and Michael's parts (fortunately they didn't sing at the same time.) Then Ian came along to help. The tenor soloist wasn't aware he was supposed to sing that bit either. We stumbled through. It was a full house for the performance, which was pleasing - around 150. Apparently it was the first performance ever of this work in Bendigo. There were twenty-four of us and about the same of the Bendigo group. They also provided the children's choir, which was prepared by Jennifer Schatzle, the soprano soloist, who was known to Graham and Ian, having performed the lead in The Magic Flute with EMO.

Next day, the concert at the Preston Town Hall was an artistic triumph and the orchestra reported it was their biggest audience for years. Apart from the Bendigo choir we had some members of Melbourne Philharmonic Choir to help. Concerts like this are such a thrill for the choir and very rewarding.

Knee-capping at Preston Town Hall

This happening took place at the first evening rehearsal for Carmina Burana at Preston Town Hall. The choir was herded with the usual mutterings on to rises, and Edna Nelva took her place with the altos a row from the back. The rehearsal proceeded and the men were well into their "In Tabema" piece, which as we all know is exciting, inviting toe tapping, jigging around and the like.

Edna was seated in the tier directly behind Diane Morgan who had entered into the spirit of things (as she always did to make up for the fact that the women were not included in this item). Caught up in the moment, she suddenly pushed her chair backwards with all her weight, but she had not realised that there were no rails to keep the chairs in place, and out of the blue Edna felt an excruciating agony in her knees and shins, and Diane almost in her lap. There was instant pandemonium in the alto ranks, as a "domino effect" was anticipated, with us all collapsing (Humpty Dumpty style) in a heap off the shaky rises.

In the confusion it took a while before anybody realised that Edna’s howl of pain, accompanied by unprintable language, was genuine and that Edna had the shape of a back of a chair imprinted on her shins, slowly turning a deep shade of purple. She didn't succumb to a fainting fit, although it would have been easy to do so, but with the help of Dianne Richter and others, and several packs of ice, her legs finally stopped throbbing, although it took few days for them to resume their usual shape and hue. I'm glad the event took place at a rehearsal and not on a performance day. (On second thoughts, we could have charged extra for the cabaret.) Dianne could have offered her services to the IRA, but they have now been disbanded. Pity…

These history notes have been kindly provided by our long-term artistic director and co-founder, Graham Ford.

Oratorios, 2000'sSteve WilkieOrff, 2004