There are lots of Carmina Burana lovers out there who make the huge expense of producing it worthwhile. The San Francisco Choral Society, like a lot of choral societies in the Bay Area, will have no trouble massing voices to sing it: 200 worthy amateurs and one of Director Robert Geary’s well-trained children’s choruses will be on hand for this performance, plus the 60-piece orchestra (just a tad shy of the 96 or so players that Orff called for). Geary drills his singers thoroughly and they often rise to a challenge.
But what sets this production apart from other amateur productions is that it will be semi-staged. Carmina Burana was conceived as a stage work, a “scenic cantata,” but most of the time it is presented purely as a concert. The opera director Brian Staufenbiel adds to the fun of this performance with a little bit of dancing, some costumes and a few other “surprises”.