The Many Facets of Love - Transcript
[NARRATOR]
At first glance, you may think it is a New York road company performing on the Lied stage in Lincoln, Nebraska. But, this production is virtually all Nebraskans—over 100 symphony musicians, over 200 choral singers, over 20 ballet dancers. They are all coming together to celebrate love. They are performing Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” which is an exploration of the many different kinds of love.
[Edward Polochick]
“and the idea of the piece itself, is that everything in life is cyclical. If he opens with say oh, the wheel of fortune, you know turns. And as it turns certain things unfold. Now the way he has opted to put the window on that aspect of life is through love.
There’s a very philosophical approach to it, there’s a very beautiful young naïve approach to love...there’s the more sophisticated approach to love, and then there’s the very down and dirty, rather bawdy approach to love, the pleasures of the flesh. In fact it’s very difficult to sometimes do translations of this for audiences because we don’t know what kind of four-letter words to use. Whether its love or something else.
[NARRATOR]
The complexities of Love are just a small part of the monumental problems of doing Carmina Burana. The music requires expanding the size of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra from its usual 70 professional musicians to over 100. To create a massive 200 voice choir—four community singing groups are combined, including the Omaha Children’s Choir. In addition, over 20 Nebraska dancers are performing all-new choreography.
Bringing order to the chaos of this elaborate production is Maestro Edward Polochick. True to the spirit of the music, he uses lots of Love to inspire his performers.
[Ed Polochick]
“The guy should be like yeah I want it, and the ladies are like, oh yes. It’s always like, it’s very sexual, but it’s very innocent, in a sense.”
[NARRATOR]
Working with Ed Polochick is Shari Shell-True, Lincoln Midwest Ballet artistic director and choreographer.
[Shari Shell-True]
You know there’s many different kinds of love, and we stayed away from the connotations that were very very sexual connotations and we played much more to the innocent and to love being lots of different things than just between a man and a woman, you know, a child and a mother, to sisters, to a brother and a sister. So I tried to take it out of that realm. I think that when I first read...the first thing that you think when you read the poem say, and then you start really looking at the poems and they are really about life.
[NARRATOR]
Carmina Burana is based on lusty, romantic songs and poems written in the middle ages by vagabonds in southern Germany. At the time, some people thought of them as mad dogs roaming from village to village singing their bawdy songs.
If the big dog of this production, Ed Polochick is to be successful, he has to infuse into the process something of the mad dog spirit in which the music was created.
[SONG]
[Visual music montage]
Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?
[NARRATOR]
Although the Symphony is paid, the majority of the performers are volunteer Nebraskans. When you figure all the time spent preparing for the one night production—individual practices, group rehearsals, dress rehearsal—you have over 10,000 volunteer hours dedicated to a one night production. If you wonder why they do it, you only have to see how much they love the process of working together.
[Shari Shell-True]
He’s just very encouraging and he’s very excellent. I like to surround myself with people that are very particular about what they are doing. And, when I take something on I try to indulge myself so deep into it that it becomes part of me. And he’s like that too. And I love that.
[Choral Singer]
“Well we’ve heard that he is very good and very demanding. So we’ve all been working really hard so we wouldn’t disappoint him.”
[Ballet Dancer]
“It is just fun to do with the whole orchestra and everything. It’s a new experience.”
[Edward Polochick]
Lot’s of rest. No drinking tonight except for water and juices. The conductor is a different story. The conductor is always a different story.
[NARRATOR]
After weeks of rehearsals, the night of the performance arrives. It is Ed Pollochick’s last chance to inspire his performers to the controlled madness that the piece requires. They must not only trust his vision, they must fall in love with it.
[Edward Pollochick]
It’s the willingness to come with me. It’s the willingness to share my vision of whatever that is. You know, this particular program. This little...this little thing that we’re doing in this little corner of America. It’s the willingness to come along with me to do that. And when people are willing to do that I think, my God, they must love you enough and support you enough that they’re willing to do that. Because they’re taking a risk...I’m taking risk.
[Carmina Burana music]
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