Carmina burana, the most pagan cantata in the repertoire performed by the crazy imaginary of Carlus Padrissa. Perhaps it was the universe –and the Camera agency– that united the visceral Fura dels Baus with the highly popular work by Carl Orff, an innovation from 1936 on goliard chants, those poems from the 12th and 13th centuries that speak, in Latin and German , wine, sex and other earthly pleasures. And the rest is history: 350,000 viewers on three continents since it premiered in 2009 at L'Auditori de Barcelona and the Musical Fortnight.
Tívoli de Barcelona replaces it for the third time starting this Tuesday, May 9, and for two weeks. It is the show that creates the most followers for the operatic cause, because in the theater on Casp street and with the publicity that is the score itself –“O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis” (O Fortuna, you are variable like the Moon)– it gives the sensation to the general public of being a musical.
“It is a music that we already carry inside. Connect with the atavistic of the body. Because our bodies are also connected to this display that jumps with the arrival of spring. That's why it works so well at this time of year”, says an effervescent Padrissa who, he confesses, is getting a little lazy to see the piece again.
In Tivoli, the eight-meter-diameter cylinder that surrounds the musicians and on which images are projected to illustrate the texts (the moon, floral ecstasy...) will rise again. The singers will hang from the classic outdoor cranes or will be immersed in the wine, the grape harvest or the fire.
“There is always talk of renewing the assembly, but it has become a classic and we are not going to touch it, it has the appeal of the vintage, with the work of the cartoonist that gives it personality”, alleges the one from Moià.
It was at the Orff-Zentrum in Munich, in a meeting with other playwrights, that Padrissa learned from one of those who had come to work with Orff, that the composer understood that his Carmina burana was not only to be played but "for images fantastic”.
In total, more than 50 artists including musicians (pianos, flutes, double bass, timpani and abundant percussion), choir and cast, which on this occasion will be double (the casting took place in Madrid), and all directed by maestro César Bela.
Spring arrives and with it the first menstruation of the protagonist, a young woman who, preening herself to see her lover, almost experiences an orgasm.
“Orff pays homage to the existence that comes from nature, that of two and two equals four: we have come into this world to eat, to have sex, to reproduce and to be as happy as possible. It goes from the essential. Hence its success”, continues Padrissa. “My dramaturgy points to that ritual of life, the time of humanity, which is also that of the other species: winter has passed, the thaw arrives and the flowers and smells come out... and even I, who am already 64, I keep going crazy. I understand it as an initiation ritual.
The furero now has a macro show for 60,000 people in Monterrey, Mexico. “It is a collaborative thing with a thousand participants. From time to time I like to go back to the Olympics. Take the people who participate and put them in a Roman circus that works like a particle accelerator”.
