Few works in the classical canon are as instantly recognizable as “Carmina Burana.”
This weekend, the Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra closes its season with Carl Orff’s towering masterpiece, presented on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 at the Los Altos United Methodist Church.
Composed in 1936, Orff’s “Carmina Burana” transformed a medieval manuscript of poems and dramatic texts into one of the most enduring works in choral music.
The original “Carmina Burana” collection, discovered in a Bavarian monastery, contains more than 250 poems dating largely from the 11th and 12th centuries.
The texts are irreverent, earthy, satirical, and startlingly modern in spirit, touching on fortune, excess, lust, drinking, gambling and the instability of life itself.
Orff selected 24 of those poems and forged them into a massive cantata for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, which you’ll hear this weekend.
Even audiences unfamiliar with classical music will recognize the iconic “O Fortuna,” the work’s apocalyptic opening and closing movement. Its hammering rhythms and ominous chorus have appeared everywhere from films and commercials to sporting events and pop culture parodies, becoming one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever composed.
But “Carmina Burana” is more than a single famous movement.
Across the evening, the work swings wildly between celebration and dread, reflecting the medieval concept of Fortune’s Wheel, a constantly turning cycle in which triumph inevitably becomes loss, and joy collapses into despair.
Performed live by a full chorus and chamber orchestra, “Carmina Burana” reminds us in a visceral way that the anxieties and pleasures of the medieval world were not so different from our own.
Performances take place this Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Los Altos United Methodist Church. For tickets, head to shorturl.at/7mq9D.
‘Swan Lake’
For generations, “Swan Lake” has stood as one of the crown jewels of ballet. It’s a sweeping tale of love, deception, and transformation set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s emotionally stirring music.
This month, the Long Beach Ballet Academy will bring this lovely classic to the stage with its annual spring production at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Featuring more than 200 dancers, lavish costumes, grand sets, and the unforgettable music of Tchaikovsky, the production promises a full-scale staging of the beloved ballet.
Leading the cast are Megan Wilcox as Odette, Maté Szentes as Prince Siegfried, and both Lizzy Stone and Katherine Gore performing the role of Odile, the Black Swan.
Originally premiering in Moscow in 1877, “Swan Lake” has become synonymous with ballet itself.
The story follows Princess Odette, who has been cursed to live as a swan by day and regain her human form only at night. When Prince Siegfried encounters her beside an enchanted lake, the two fall deeply in love — but dark magic threatens to destroy their happiness.
Part of the ballet’s enduring fascination lies in its striking duality. Odette, the White Swan, embodies purity, vulnerability, and grace, while Odile, the Black Swan, represents seduction, illusion, and danger.
The contrast between the two roles has become one of ballet’s greatest artistic challenges, demanding both technical precision and dramatic intensity from everyone involved.
Long Beach Ballet Academy’s production hopes to embrace the grand scale that has made “Swan Lake” legendary. Audiences can expect sweeping full-company sequences, virtuosic solo performances, and the visual spectacle that has defined the company for decades.
Beyond the performance itself, the production also highlights the academy’s educational mission of fostering discipline, artistry, and opportunity for young dancers, many of whom have gone on to join major ballet companies around the world.
Performances take place Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31, at 2 p.m. at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
VIP tickets include a souvenir program and backstage pass following the performance. For more information, check out longbeachballet.com.
Alex’s Bar
What do you get when you pack punk and reggae into a legendary club in Long Beach?
On Wednesday, May 20, Alex’s Bar will host exactly that kind of night when H.R. (the stage name of Bad Brains front man Paul Hudson) headlines an evening of punk and reggae fury alongside Swingin’ Johnny and Bandito.
To understand why this show matters, you have to understand what Bad Brains meant to punk music. Emerging from D.C. in the late 1970s, the band shattered expectations with fast musicianship, explosive live performances, and a fusion of hardcore punk, metal, funk, and reggae.
At a time when many punk bands embraced simplicity, Bad Brains sounded virtuosic and chaotic. And so generations of artists, from hardcore bands to grunge and rap-rock acts, have cited Bad Brains as foundational — and at the center of it all was H.R.
H.R. helped redefine what punk could sound like, bringing Rastafarian spirituality and reggae rhythms into a scene largely dominated by pure aggression.
With a voice that could shift from rapid-fire hardcore screams to soulful reggae melodies without warning, HR was—and is—one of punk’s most iconic front men.
That legacy makes a performance like this feel especially rare.
The show, a chance to see a living architect of punk history, takes place Wednesday, May 20, at 8 p.m. at Alex’s Bar. For tickets, go to shorturl.at/Sa2Ej.