Carmina Burana
presented by UC Alumni
Chorus and Smuin Ballet
Berkeley Community
Theater, Berkeley
April 11th,
2015
Live musical
accompaniment makes such a difference in dance performance. And if there was
one choreographic work that was made for live music, it is Carmina Burana. While it isn’t always possible, live music ups the
ante of this dramatic ballet and infuses the movement with electricity. New
dimensions of power and vibrancy abound, ones that just cannot be achieved or
replicated with a recorded score. This past Saturday, in a special one-night engagement,
audiences could experience this phenomenon. Smuin Ballet performed Michael
Smuin’s version of Carmina Burana in
Berkeley with a huge musical aggregate: the UC Alumni Chorus, UC Men’s and
Women’s Chorales, the Santa Barbara Choral Society, the San Francisco State
University Percussion Ensemble, an instrumental chamber group, two pianists and
three solo vocalists. As conductor Dr. Mark Sumner shared at the beginning of the
performance, this was a special evening of artistic collaboration.
Smuin’s Carmina Burana is divided into multiple
sub-sections that mirror the various musical chapters of the piece. Because of
all these starts and stops, at times, the ballet can feel disjointed. But the
live music made such a significant difference. While the series of starts and
stops were still present (and some chapters had no dance at all), there was an
overarching flow and fluidity to the work.
As the layered choral
harmony hung in the air, Susan Roemer’s first solo viscerally haunted.
Everything had an extra level of drama – her hands, her piqué turns, her
balances on demi-pointe in 2nd position demi-plié. Joshua Reynolds,
Robert Moore and Jo-Ann Sundermeier’s pas de trois was a statement of simple
elegance with its unison low attitude turns, supported developpés and extended
arabesques. Another highlight was Nicole Haskins’ solo towards the end of the
ballet. Haskins danced the variation with style, technique and aplomb, and
while there are some beautiful choreographic phrases, the vignette does come
across as a little too busy.
Some dramatic flair and
narrative interpretation found its way into the featured vocal solos. In a
purely choral concert, I can see how this works well, but with the dancers on
stage at the same time, it was out of place. And on occasion, establishing the
right tempo proved challenging. The dancers and musicians definitely settled
into the tempo they both wanted, but it didn’t always start out that way.
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