Astonishing Carmina Burana at Lyric Opera

I cannot tell you how critically important it is for you to rush over to the Lyric Opera and get a ticket to Carmina Burana, the Orff masterpiece that is a soundbath for your soul.  You know some of this music: you have heard it in commercials and as background in film and TV, so your ears will prick up— but then you may have never heard the sheer magnificence of over 200 live musicians on stage creating a wave of musicality that will literally shift your molecules. 

It is wonderful to have the orchestra pulled out from their usual home in the pit and gloriously on stage.  Backed by the shimmering and internationally famous Lyric Opera Chorus and it’s like LOC always had a Ferrari in the garage but they never took it out and drove it for all of us with all the bells and whistles on display.  We heard the musicians but now we get to see and feel it. Music director Enrique Mazzola who conducted was having an absolute ball and was completely in his element.  Ian Rucker, the towering Baritone who must sing the most German Medieval poetry is charming.  Soprano Jasmin Habersham is backed by the tuneful Uniting Voices Children’s Choir and she shines in her ruby red gown. Lyric regular tenor David Portillo is absolutely hilarious as a roasted swan in Olim Lacus Colueram.  

What is Carmina Burana about? It's about mortality and being human.  But it is really about the sheer power of music to transform.  It doesn’t matter what the words are: they are in medieval German and Latin– you will be seeing English supertitles. What is important about this work is the sound, and how it gets inside you and moves you on a physical, non verbal level. There isn’t any experience like this available in our world right now. 

Go buy tickets to the final presentation tomorrow (they are only doing this 3 times!). Carmina Burana is at the Lyric Opera of Chicago November 14-18th at the Civic Opera House at 20 N. Wacker Drive in Chicago. For tickets and information go to https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2025-26/carmina-burana/

 No part of this article was created using AI

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