carmina burana

Birmingham Royal Ballet. Photo: Bill Cooper

MUSIC Carl Orff
DESIGNS Philip Prowse
LIGHTING Peter Mumford

Just months after the creation of Edward II in Stuttgart, I became the Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet. I was determined that I would make a ‘splash’ and create something that would signal a new course for the Company and galvanise as many of the dancers as possible for my first programme by involving them all in a new piece.

I’d known Carl Orff’s choral ‘blockbuster’ since I was sixteen and now I had the means and resources with which to tackle it!

Because the orchestra pit at Birmingham Hippodrome, large though it is, was not big enough to contain Orff’s huge band, with it’s two pianos, choir, soloists and battery of percussion, we had to go for a stripped-back percussion, pianos and chamber choir version. The effect though was not diminished and had the added plus that it reflected the updated ‘pop’ age view of designer Phillip Prowse, who’s sensational vision still dazzles twenty five years later. The piece went on to become something of a calling card for my Direction of the Company.