Eugene Concert Choir: Carmina Burana and Walpurgis Night

Eugene Concert Choir & Orchestra

Diane Retallack, Artistic Director & Conductor

Soloists*:

Alexandria Crichlow, soprano
Laura Beckel Thoreson, contralto
Esteban Zúñiga Calderón, tenor
Phillip Bullock, baritone (newly announced)

Our season of musical travels concludes in Germany with two great pagan masterworks:

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana “Songs of Buren”

Revel in the powerful songs of love, drink, and the unrelenting force of the ever-turning wheel of fate, as archived by scribes of the Buren Monastery. Silva Concert Hall will resound with the iconic and riveting opening chorus “O Fortuna” performed by 100 voices in combination with the full Eugene Concert Orchestra. From tender to seductive, the solo voices weave a mesmerizing tale of emotion. The raucous tavern scene and the grotesque roasted swan add a vivid and macabre theatricality to this grand spectacle.

Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht

The first Walpurgis Night is the eve of May Day when, according to legend, witches dance on the Brocken Peak in the Harz Mountains of Germany. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ballad reimagines this myth as a fantastical fable enacted by Druids defending their deeply held pagan beliefs. This text spoke to Mendelssohn, whose “fairy style” music perfectly encapsulates the magical whimsy of the wild Witches’ Chorus and culminates in triumphant blazing light, symbolizing victory and freedom.

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