Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana, a series of over 250 poems and dramatic works from the 11th and 12th centuries, was first staged by the Frankfurt Opera in 1937, with Bertil Wetzelsberger conducting. The texts were written mostly in Medieval Latin by clergy and students, and when set to music were a big hit, spreading to other opera houses and developing into an international triumph. In the US, Carmina Burana represents one of the few box office certainties in 20th-century music.