O Fortuna…

Velut luna…

Statu variabilis!

With bass drums, horns, strings, and choral voices all hitting from the start with the force of an aural hurricane, “O Fortuna” (the opening section of Carmina Burana) is either the perfect pump-you-up anthem or the alarm ringtone from hell, depending on your personal preference. But either way, it’s unabashedly recognizable. 

As far as figure skating goes, my best (and worst) memory of it goes back to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Todd Eldredge, competing in his third and final Olympics, used Carmina for his short program. Although his cut used vocals where the Latin lyrics are mostly indiscernible (perhaps a necessity in those instrumental-only days of singles skating), the opening 20 seconds of “O Fortuna” (with the above lyrics) are what started the program, and led directly (and of course dramatically) into Eldredge stumbling all over the back part of his quad toe combo. As the chorus swelled again, 25 seconds later, he fell out of his triple axel… and any hope of finally clinching an elusive Olympic medal was now gone. (He ultimately finished sixth in SLC.)

I was a grown, married woman with a toddler in 2002, but I still shed a ridiculous amount of tears after that event. For me, the full-throttle selections Eldredge skated to that night only served to underscore his Olympic fate in relentless fashion– like the music you’d hear in a nightmare. 

The “fate” part, it turns out, makes perfect sense once you know something about the music choice itself.

What conductor Marin Alsop told NPR in 2006 about Carmina Burana crystallizes its long-term appeal:

This has to be probably the best-known 20th century piece, because it's been excerpted to sell everything from cars to aftershave. It's amazing what kind of associations people make for this piece. And actually, something I love to do is, you know, go around and play the opening - the 'O Fortuna - for people, and see what image it evokes. Because I think some people would see themselves, you know, driving in a certain brand of car, where others would see themselves, you know, putting on a certain type of lingerie. Who knows?

In the world of figure skating— where drama dominates, particular in ice dance— the French team of Anissina/Peizerat won Worlds (on home turf) in 2000 with an “O Fortuna” free dance…

And when Volosozhar/Trankov began their pairs partnership in the 2010-11 season, it was this SP to “Carmina” that set them on the path to their first Worlds medal as a team…

With music choices opening up considerably since the permission of lyrics in 2014, many skaters have opted for “lighter,” more contemporary pieces, leaving the epic arrangements behind. But not USA’s Andrew Torgashev, who has Carmina as part of his free skate in 2022-23.

Not Canada’s Conrad Orzel, either, who used it for his SP in the same season:

And Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov took his Carmina free skate all the way to Worlds with the other two men:

“It's a spectacle,” Marin Alsop went on to tell NPR about Carmina Burana. “It's very hard to categorize, and that was Orff's intent, really. He wanted it to be a piece for all of the senses: to hear the voice, to hear the words, to experience this enormous orchestra, two pianos. And also, it was envisioned to have a dance element and a theater element as well.”

With figure skating involved, suffice to say those elements are spoken for.