City Ballet Presents Elizabeth Wistrich’s “Carmina Burana”

Forty-four years ago, Elizabeth and Steven Wistrich danced in choreographer John Butler’s production of “Carmina Burana,” famously presented in a Belgian cathedral with a live orchestra and a chorus of monks, and widely held as one of the most popular epic pieces of music ever written.

It was an event that neither of the City Ballet of San Diego co-directors would ever forget. And this weekend, they will at last have the opportunity to re-create that same theatrical piece with their own ballet set to music by Carl Orff, with a live orchestra and a 100-voice chorus in the Spreckels Theatre (conducted by John Nettles).

Orff’s work was based on medieval poetry, discovered in the library of an ancient Bavarian monastery. The thirteenth century poems and songs were created by minstrels and monks who had freed themselves of monastic discipline. The ballet, however, is not a retelling of these poems, but rather an abstract interpretation. Shown in tandem with the company’s full-length “The Seasons,” the season-closer will be the biggest and most ambitious production in City Ballet’s 20-year history.

When: May 3-5, 2013
Where: Spreckels Theatre, San Diego
Tickets: $29-69
Phone: (858) 272-8663

-Nicole Lawrence