Carmina Burana

CARMINA BURANA – Carl Orff

Scenic cantata in the original languages, with Hungarian, English, and original-language surtitles

Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, including one interval

O Fortuna. Everyone knows the overwhelmingly powerful opening motifs of Carl Orff's most famous work. What fewer people know is that Carmina Burana was not intended to be an oratorical work, but was instead expressly meant for the stage. This becomes clear from the piece's (originally Latin) subtitle: “Secular songs for singers and chorus to be sung together with instruments and magical images.”
Over the course of the many times he has conducted the work, Tibor Bogányi gradually developed a vision for a staged version. The creators conceived a breathtaking spectacle to surround the three soloists, the three dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet, and the monumental 120-strong chorus singing from memory, as well as the children's chorus, with the 3D “magical images” coming to life on six projection displays and LED walls.

Since all this is happening in an opera house, the hour-long Carmina Burana is preceeded by a 30-minute-long opera showcase, a gift concert of sorts, which in the 2025/2026 season will include the most popular excerpts from Beethoven's, Mozart's, Wagner's œuvre: promising  to the OPERA, the hope of Carmina Burana fans returning to opera performances, too.

Age restriction: The performance is not recommended for children under 12 years of age.

Parental guidance: We wish to inform you that we occasionally use light effects that may be disturbing or excessively bright for some members of the audience.

Synopsis

Magical images in 3D
For 15 years, painter and organist Ágnes Zászkaliczky and conductor and cellist Tibor Bogányi have been working together on finding ways to attract a wider range of audience segments to classical concerts by enhancing their productions with singular visual experiences: Zászkaliczky selects projected material from paintings created expressly for the given musical piece. Their largest-scale effort to date is the super-production Carmina Burana, which they put together with the world-renowned Budapest-based Freelusion Studio.

“We worked out the basic concept of Carmina Burana together with librettist Attila Könnyű. Not long after the idea was conceived, we found the Freelusion team, whose unique technical and artistic expertise allowed us to raise the concept of “visual concerts” to a new level. Through this collaboration, we developed real-time three-dimensional visual material that is in perfect harmony with the music. The essence of the concept is the fact that it is not the visuals that dictate the tempo, but rather the music: it is not the conductor’s task to “accompany” an existing film or animation, like at so many concerts of film music, for example. Instead, the music takes centre stage, and everything else adapts to it. We therefore had to create a form of animation that would be suitable for following the music live during the concert. 
In the music, Orff followed and expressed the messages of the songs with extraordinary sensitivity. Starting from Orff’s own concept, we have selected “magical images” that reinforce the effect of the music without suppressing it, and which make the text more profound without illustrating it. The dynamic of the moods of the projection is organised along the lines of the major movements. We’ve built upon ancient symbols that can be found both in Hungarian and universal motif systems. Tímea Papp, Freelusion’s superb choreographer, we decided which movements would also incorporate dance to be performed by the outstanding dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet. We hope this will transport the audience to a magical virtual reality through Orff’s elemental music and the unique visual experience.” 

Tibor Bogányi and Ágnes Zászkaliczky

Program and cast

Conductor: Dániel Erdélyi, Tibor Boganyi

Soprano - Zsuzsanna Kapi, Orsolya Sáfár, Erika Miklósa

Alto - Andrea Meláth, Gabriella Balga, Mária Farkasréti

Baritone - Csaba Szegedi, Zsolt Haja

Featuring: Adrienn Pap, Tymofiy Bykovets, András Szegő, Diana Kosyreva, Miklós Dávid Kerényi, András Rónai, Kristina Starostina, Iurii Kekalo, Ricardo Vila M.

Featuring the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus, as well as the Hungarian National Ballet

Concept: Zászkaliczky Ágnes

Concept: Attila Könnyű

Concept: Tibor Boganyi

Director: Tibor Boganyi

Artistic director: Zászkaliczky Ágnes

Artistic director: Tibor Boganyi

3D projection mapping: Freelusion

Choreographer, visual designer: Tímea Papp

Chief graphic designer: Ádám Herczeg

Costume designer: Szelei Mónika

Chorus director: Gábor Csiki

Head of the children's chorus: Nikolett Hajzer

Hungarian translation by Pödör Ferenc

English translation by Anonymus