Flash mob Carmina Burana

Oh, the standards on flash mobs just keep getting pushed higher and higher.

Beethoven‘s “Ode to Joy” chorus?  Easy Sunday-afternoon-in-the-plaza piece.

Carl Orff‘s Carmina Burana? Sure, it scores on the cool side; but a performance is really a little more demanding than Beethoven’s most whistlable tune, isn’t it?

Is this in Vienna?  In a train station?  It features the Volksoper Vienna.  And once again, we get the wonderfully comical entrance of the actual tympani, without which Carmina would be impossible, no?

Details, in German:

SolistInnen, Chor, Orchester der Volksoper Wien boten im April Fahrgästen und Passanten eine besondere Performance. Die KünstlerInnen lösten sich aus der Menschenmenge – eine “Passantin” begann, weitere “PassantInnen” – sowie als ÖBB-MitarbeiterInnen verkleidete KünstlerInnen – setzten nach und nach ein.: 558,438

http://www.volksoper.at
http://www.ppmzweinull.com/ppmzweinull2.html

What’s next?  Will someone do a Carmina while actually roasting a swan, and offer slices of the poor bird?

Okay, here’s one I’d like to see:  Aaron Copeland’s Rodeo, complete with Agnes Demille choreography.  Is there time for someone to get it put together for the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo?  The Houston Stock Show?  Wouldn’t it look grand in Grand Central Station?

More:

• ‘Carmina Burana’: Orff’s Vibrant Cantata Intertwined with Nazi Debate (wqxr.org)
• Review | Kansas City Ballet’s ‘Carmina Burana’ (kansascity.com)
• A Visceral Tour de Force: Carmina Burana at Carnegie Hall (city-journal.org)
• Muti, CSO Kick Off Season With Free Millennium Park Concert (chicagoist.com)
• Phillips Phunny: “Star Wars” Orchestra Flash Mob (y98.cbslocal.com)
• The Classical Beat | ‘Carmina Burana’ launches ballet’s season (kansascity.com)
• Social studies teachers, note that Carmina Burana comes out of 1934, that period when Europe was preparing to come apart in World War again, and the U.S. was struggling with the Great Depression; not sure how to fit it in to your world history or U.S. history curriculum, but the students likely will not forget it.