The Dartmouth College Glee Club and full orchestra performed Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" Saturday night to a standing ovation.
The Glee Club gave the most spirited performance of the season. Always paying careful attention to the flowing form and overcoming the technical difficulties that the score imposes, they sang with an awareness of the meaning of the text and imbued each section with a different musical "tinta."
The work is a 20th century Romantic composition based on the 12th century Latin manuscript "Songs of Benedictbauern," and its opening, "O, Fortuna," has been made famous through its frequent use in films.
Among the soloists, Ronald Dean Williams gave an extraordinarily impressive and thoughtful performance. His singing was resonant and lyrical and his musical enjoyment was reflected in his performance. Occasionally Glee Club Director Louis Burkot would drown out the baritone's upper register, especially in "Egosum Abbas," but on the whole his warm tone filled the auditorium.
Youmi Cho, winner of the 1992-93 Metropolitan Opera competition, was the soprano. Her voice was light, secure and lyrical and although she had fewer solos than Williams, she rose equally well to the occasion. In "amor volat unique" her celestial sound provided great contrast to the orchestra's somewhat monochromatic playing.
The tenor, Torrance Blaisdell '90 was overmatched. In his only solo, "Olim lacus colueram," the unusually high tessitura and his naturally nasal sound made him seem uncomfortable with the music.
The overall performance successfully captured the ebullient and lustful spirit that the work requires. The "In taberna quando sumus" was particularly robust and precise.
The semi-spoken rhythmic inflection in "Si puer cum puellula" was a striking and welcome textural change from the overpowering and sometimes deadining brass flourishes that abound in the work.
