«This was the dramatic rendition of Carl Orff's most famous piece of music, how he wanted it to look but seldom performed as such nowadays. It was finally filmed by West German TV in 1975 with the close co-operation of Orff in honour of his 80th birthday. The various stories of young lust and gluttony are playfully and skillfully brought to life. This version of Orff's masterpiece of the sacred and profane was hard to find in Germany. Not so strange, it was banned there for decades, most likely because of its almost literal interpretation of the texts Orff put music to. I first saw this when I was 12-13 years old at the Goethe Institute in Bergen, Norway, with my father, sister and mother. Someone had managed to get hold of an 8mm film roll with it and had a secret screening. This was in the 1980s and, believe it or not, there were strong forces opposed to what they considered blasphemous content in films. The mixture of Christian and pagan imagery is completely consistent with the lyrics, which were found in a monastery, and are a mixture of sacred and profane songs, but were obviously too tough to swallow. Copies of the film were destroyed, but luckily, art prevailed.
(...)
Song List:
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi
1. O Fortuna
2. Fortune plango vulnera
I -- Primo vere
3. Veris leta facies
4. Omnia sol temperat
5. Ecce gratum
Uf dem Anger
6. Tanz
7. Floret silva
8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir
9. a) Reie
9. b) Swaz hie gat umbe
9. c) Chume, chum, geselle min
9. d) Swaz hie gat umbe
10. Were diu werlt alle min
II -- In Taberna
11. Estuans interius
12. Olim lacus colueram
13. Ego sum abbas
14. In taberna quando sumus
III -- Cour d'amours
15. Amor volat undique
16. Dies, nox et omnia
17. Stetit puella
18. Circa mea pectora
19. Si puer cum puellula
20. Veni, veni, venias
21. In trutina
22. Tempus est iocundum
23. Dulcissime
Blanziflor et Helena
24. Ave formosissima
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi
25. O Fortuna (reprise)
Lucia Popp (soprano)
John van Kesteren (tenor)
Hermann Prey (baritone)
Bavarian Radio Chorus
Tolz Children's Choir
Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Kurt Eichhorn
Film Directed by Jean Pierre Ponnelle
"Kurt Eichhorn-Carmina Burana/Veris leta facies", sound recording administered by:
SME"»
