Monmouth Civic Chorus. Ryan James Brandau, conductor. April 6, 2019.

Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Deal, NJ.  Premium Seating (Seat J115, $38).

Program

Carmina Burana: A Scenic Cantata (1935-1936) by Orff (1895-1982).

Guest Artists

Claire Leyden – soprano, Alex Guerrero – tenor, Marcus DeLoach, baritone.

Roxy Ballet – Mark A. Roxey, director.

The soloists get mentioned, the ballet company gets mentioned, and - certainly - the conductor gets mentioned in bold, but we can't tell who the composer is on the program.

This is going to be a short report.  As Anne remarked to me afterwards, I nodded off quite a bit during this concert.  I have powered through long days and jet lags, but I “lost” terribly tonight.

We saw this about ten years ago performed by the National Chorale, and my blog entry for that event would indicate I was reasonably familiar with the piece, I had forgotten most of it by now.

First, the accompaniment consisted of two pianos and several percussion instruments.  This was the same arrangement used in the 2009 performance I saw.  Then there is this “storyline” which is reasonably easy to trace if one spends a little time on it – which I didn’t.  The most surprising aspect, however, is that this is called a “Scenic Cantata.”  That I had no idea.  As described in the Program, “[Orff] conceived it as a ‘scenic cantata,’ combining music, dance, costumes, and imagery.”

Thus when I first sat down, I was wondering where the orchestra was, and what this part of the stage where it usually sat was for.  At the end of the program, I was quite impressed with how well the dancers did, some moves were exceedingly athletic.  Evidently the dance company and the chorus have been at it since 2016.  To carry on my plagiarism further, I quote from the Program: “The texts were probably written by itinerant scholars and defrocked priests who roamed from town to town, reciting bawdy poems to earn their food and drink …” Well, everything sounds good in Latin (as well as German and French).

There was a last-minute soloist substitute, which Brandau announced at the beginning of the concert.  I didn’t get the specifics, other than it was possibly the baritone.  In any case, all of them did well.

Curtain call.  Wheel of fortune projected on the screen.  Mark Roxey is the one in the white jacket.

“O Fortuna” is heard quite often over the radio, and has a haunting quality to it.  I do wish the chorus had “shouted” a bit louder for this number.

We were in north Jersey before the concert, and on our way down some debris fell off a truck and hit our car, causing some damage to the passenger side.  Most frustrating … We stopped by TGI Fridays in Monmouth Mall for a quick dinner.

Lorinda and Henry’s daughter was in the chorus.  They were in attendance also.