"Carmina Burana" is the most popular work of the German composer Karl Orff, and the famous choir from there "Oh Fortune" is replicated by television advertising and cinema. It can be heard in many films: from "Natural Born Killers" to the animated series "The Simpsons".
Carl Orff wrote "Carmina Burana" at the age of 41, being already a well-known teacher, the creator of his own system of musical education.
He considered the cantata the starting point of his creative path and asked the publisher to destroy all his works published before. My collected works begin with Carmina Burana,” said Orff.
One day, Orph caught the eye of a manuscript - Latin and German songs and poems from a Benedict-Boyern manuscript of the 13th century. The title of the collection Carmina Burana and the cover with the image of the Wheel of Fortune attracted the attention of the composer "with magical power".
An image of a future masterpiece immediately arose in Orff's mind - a stage cantata with a constant change of contrasting pictures, with a singing and dancing choir. On the very first night after getting acquainted with the manuscript, the first choir appeared.
From a medieval collection, the composer took 24 poems in Latin and Middle High German. The themes that the poems cover are wine, gambling, love, gluttony, wealth, the transience of life, the variability of luck.
The premiere of the cantata took place on June 8, 1937 at the opera house in Frankfurt am Main.
