Wow! The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, The Toronto Youth Choir, The Toronto Children's Choir, the TSO, and opera singers Sunnyboy Dladla (tenor), Norman Garret (baritone), and Nicole Haslett (soprano).
An amazing performance with three curtain calls. Of course, there was no encore performed in spite of the audience appreciation.
Fantastic!! At one point the conductor became so enthusiastic his baton flew out of his hand and into the audience. It was graciously offered back via the tenor.
The lyrics to this 1936 composition originate from the 12th and 13th centuries; uncovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803. The verses are "earthy" and include more than 200 drinking songs, love songs, and bawdy texts. It is speculated they were penned by defrocked priests and wandering scholars. Orff chose 24 of the poems to create this 60 minute opus. The most famous, O Fortuna, majesticallly begins and ends the symphony.
translated:
Fortune, Empress of the World
O Fortune,
like the moon you are changeable,
ever waxing and waning;
hateful life first oppresses
and then soothes as fancy takes it;
poverty and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate - monstrous and empty,
you whirling wheel, you are malevolent,
well-being is vain and always fades to nothing,
shadowed and veiled you plague me too;
now through the game I bring my bare back
to your villainy.
Fate is against me in health and virtue,
driven on and weighted down, always enslaved.
So at this hour, without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!
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