h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The dates for the performance of Carmina Burana are closing in. We have been asked to keep mum about the special effects and everything, but I can tell you lot because I'm bursting to tell someone and you are all so far away you can't let the cat out of the bag for me..



The music director who organises the summer festival in our town is a crazy, disorganised but very creative chap. He recently retired as a teacher which means he now has all his time to spend on the music school. He is also a very good musician - and knows lots of good musicians.

He composes pieces which incorporate practically every musician in the town - from the Turkish balalaika group* through the samba drum combo to the primary school kids on their recorders, the jazz ensemble (his daughter is a good jazz pianist) to the music school orchestra, big band and choirs. He uses simple motifs which even the audience are joining in with by the end.



The festival starts on 24 June. The big gala night which used to be at the end of the festival will form the opening event this year, and the finale furioso on that evening will be the Project Choir (including me) singing O fortuna (and maybe one other movement) from the Carmina Burana.

The actual performance of the whole of the Carmina will be on 17 July to close the festival.



Before I can describe the spectacle itself, I have to explain where it takes place.

Germersheim is based on a military fort which was built 1834 - 1855 to "protect" the surrounding countryside from the French. There are many such military bases all along the Rhine. Even under the Romans and before that the site was used for the same purpose.

The present fortifications were never put to the test and have disintegrated somewhat. Now the town are renovating what is still usable and putting the buildings to municipal use, improving the overall appearance of the place and making an effort to attract tourists.

This link (which might be removed because I can only find a German version) shows how much of the structure still remains.

http://www.verkehrsverein-germersheim.de/festung.htm



The music school is the U-shaped building at the bottom left. This was a parade practice ground with barracks round it. The building is linked underground to the other parts of the fortifications by catacombs with large areas for ammunition storage. The whole of the summer festival uses the parade ground in the middle to great advantage. There are numerous doors opening out into the courtyard, in front of which, for the purposes of the summer festival, small stages and rostra are erected for various performances.

In the point of the U is the large stage for the big performances, on two levels, the lower one for the orchestra. Gantries for lighting are fixed from one side of the open area to the other, above and in front ot the stage.

At the open end of the "horseshoe" which is the local name for it, is a very high wall, above which there is a steep grass rise. When there are concerts on down in the horseshoe, passers by can stop there and watch for free from the fence at the top. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh at their antics when you're on the stage trying to sing a difficult fugue. The audience can't see them.



Sorry that went on for so long, but I had to explain that so that you can imagine what happens next.



At the end of this gala on 24 June, we are to stand on the green slope opposite the stage. If we're lucky, the lighting technicians will time it right and the lights will go on with the first chord. We are having kaftans made in Syria and will all be dressed up in these. We shall have to sing from memory. The whole thing will be rounded off by fireworks (a wheel of fortune).

The accompaniment will be played over the speakers from a CD.



The rest of the programme involves food and drink and lots of little tidbits of good quality music on the various small stages and on the large stage intermittently during the evening, partly played by pupils and teachers of the music school, partly by professionals.


It promises to be a great evening - I only hope the weather holds out.


*I know they're not called balalaikas but I can't remember the Turkish name

Wow. They'll really get Orff on that performance

Sounds mighty impressive! And what a place! All the fortifications still there? Must be almost unique! Vienna used to look like that I gather, then in the 19th century while yours were being built the Viennese demolished theirs.

The audience are all standing in the U, or sitting?
They'll suddenly find themselves ambushed from behind, and will have to turn to . . . face the music



*Saz?

- if only it were a week later, I'd have a totally free (of Gruesomes) weekend and could have come down to watch.

It sounds absolutely fantastic - and I can't wait to hear how it all went.

It was originally going to be a week later, but there is a performance of the Carmina in Speyer (10 minutes up the road) complete with dance ensemble in an equally impressive setting - in front of the Cathedral, also open air, the week after.

In my delight at all the surprises we have for the audience I quite forgot that I didn't want to sing the damn thing in the first place. You may as well masturbate on stage, IMHO. How people perform this without going red is beyond me.

There's lots more to tell. The catacombs are used for what they call "Walk Don't walk" There are American pedestrian signs fixed up at various points along the subterranean passageways (these passageways are fascinating in themselves, especially to those interested in military history).

From 7 - 8 each evening when there is a concert or performance during the festival there are 5 - 6 groups hidden in various ammunition storage spaces and other rooms around the fortifications and each group plays or performs for about 10 minutes. The audience is divided up into 5-6 smallish groups and posted at each room. You then pass through the labyrinth of cold dark passageways, stopping and going as the lights show "WAlk" or "Don't Walk" and watch all the performances in rotation.

These can be jazz, early music, conventional or experimental stuff (recorders with balloons are "in" this year). Some members of the project choir (yours truly included, of course) are singing one little piece here, too.

The audiences then have from 8 pm to 9 pm to get a drink and have a little something to eat in the horseshoe before the concert actually starts at 9. The festival includes plays, silent movies, ballet etc, as well as music in all imaginable forms.

And as for equivalent fortified towns - we discovered one recently on our way back home from England via Calais in Gravelines. We were taking a roundabout route from Calais to spend a few days in Belgium and Luxembourg to extend the holiday, and Gravelines (well known for the battle, but the battle took place on the water) is just North of Calais, directly along the coast. It's absolutely contemporary to Germersheim, built by Vauban himself, and has many similarities. They have also planted gardens among the buildings and made an attraction of it, while using the buildings themselves for museums etc.

Another surprise has also been hinted at by our conductor. She said about the swan solo "Don't be surprised when he starts getting undressed".

And at the last rehearsal, the chappie who's organising the whole thing said "Here's something for the ladies" and handed round a photo of the soloist they've managed to get for us. Apparently he's an Italian heartthrob. But I'm not sure if he's the baritone or the counter-tenor.

Well it is a very sexy work, that's for sure. I'm sure I'd never be able to sing it in public (although I do love the music)

Don't forget piccys of your solist guy!

Sounds like quite a production

Well - I shall tell you all about it after the event no doubt.

Our tickets are certainly cheaper than the Speyer production. I've forgotteh this Italian's name, so I can't post a link to a photo for the moment.

Fourth last rehearsal this afternoon. We were issued with our Kaftans which we all have to wear. They are in browns, creams, olives, orange and ochre colours.

The "Happening" was confirmed to be as I said. There will be an orchestral piece played on the stage at the front, and at exactly 10 pm they finish and the first "boom" of "O fortuna" strikes up at the other end, the spotlights go on to the back end of the courtyard and those of us who are brave enough to go through with this will be standing on the (still VERY steep - I had a look just now) grassy bit at the opposite end to the stage. Simultaneously the wheel fireworks somewhere behind us will also ignite.

We practised some simple but dramatic arm movements to illustrate the first verse of "O fortuna".

I've been frantically learning all this Latin off by heart and now we've been told we've got to sing Ecce gratum as well. (Actually it's a mini-medley: O fortuna, first verse of Ecce gratum and then O fortuna again, by which time the fireworks will probably have burnt out.)

So excuse me for the next six days please while I go and learn my Latin. Oh, and I'd better shorten my kaftan as well. There's a lot of stairs to climb to that high slope at the back of the stage, I don't want to trip. I'm scared of heights.

And also, although the whole thing will visually be absolutely bombastic, we're singing to a CD, which also has the choir on it. I don't know if we're amplified as well, but I have a feeling we're going to be seen and not heard.

Let's hope people come to the full concert on 17 July when we really will be heard. The performance on Friday is to whet everyone's appetites for that.

This whole thing takes place in just 6 days!!

I love the dedication of people who learn the Latin in order to lip-synch (effectively) to a CD at a distance where their lips will be utterly invisible. Show biz is full of uncelebrated people like TC. They make the world go round.

Not sure I'll ever be in "show biz" now.

They've predicted rain for this evening.

woke up this morning
rain was falling on the grass
my man said "Storms are coming"
I thought - "O great, what a farce"

Perhaps we should have had the concert sooner
Or have I wasted my time learning "O fortuna"?

... bass solo...

Improvised scatting:..... vita detestabilis

... guitar break ....

Baritone solo: Ego sum Abbas.

Everyone slithers down the grass slope. (Uff dem Anger)
Mud fight.

Fireworks never got ignited as they were drenched.

Everyone ends up "in taberna"

Best of luck.

You're getting infected! I look forward to more postings in doggerel

sic transit gloria mundi.

soooooo
how did it go?

I just wrote an answer to that and got caught on the wrong key when posting and sent the whole lot into oblivion. Think yourselves lucky - it was far too long, anyway. Suffice to say - it went exactly according to plan (except the bit before us took a bit longer) and the weather held out.

These reports of floods everywhere else in Europe - We're still high and dry here - and sweltering.

The best of our posts, you'll agree Trilly-Ann,
Grow long in the writing, and end in the bin.
If only we knew that before we began
We'd write them in Notepad, and copy them in.

Recumbentman!

I should have done that this afternoon. Losing that post was due to the whole system in the office packing up on us. It was a long contribution to the thread about "Anyone else not yet convinced that "ask" has been saved?".

Right - I'll just show you the pictures and then I'll shut up.

http://www.kultursommer-germersheim.de/26juni05/index.htm