Carmina Burana by Carl Orff

The Naperville Chorus, with the Naperville Festival Orchestra, will present “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff in their spring concert. This music was based on dramatic and satirical medieval texts found in a Bavarian monastery. The dynamic opening and closing song, “O Fortuna,” has been widely used in modern films. The Naperville Chorus, founded in 1976, draws its members from Naperville and the greater Chicagoland area.

Written in 1935, Carl Orff uses 24 poems from the Medieval collection of German Goliard Poems to tell the stories of the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of spring and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust. Orff’s Carmina Burana is divided into three sections called Springtime, In the Tavern and The Court Of Love.