Wildly popular at its 1937 première, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana has remained a staple of the choral repertory ever since, a position cemented by its habitual re-appropriation – it currently frequents montages on The X Factor.

It was in its reduced orchestration form that York Opera chose to tackle the work, accompanied by two pianists and five percussionists.

Preluding it on Thursday was a well-chosen selection of numbers from The Marriage Of Figaro, jocular narration from Ian Small serving to elucidate the surrounding plot twists.

Pianist Tim Tozer admirably conjured Mozart’s orchestral palate, providing a sensitive musical backdrop.

Ian Thomson-Smith made for a dynamic Figaro opposite Jennifer Garbutt’s genial Susanna, ensemble and vocal blend brilliantly executed by the cast in the sextet and the kinetic finale.

While the spacious Guildhall provided a daunting challenge for single voices, filling its cavernous acoustic proved no issue in the “profane cantata”, a ferocious wall of sound unleashed from the offset with the iconic O Fortuna. United by the assured beat of director Derek Chivers, the large forces succeeded in highlighting the bizarre eclecticism of the score.

Much like the amalgamated medieval text itself, the music bears witness to a stylistic collision, Gregorian chant locking horns with cinematic Orientalism.

Solos of delicacy and poise were underpinned by a chorus that manoeuvred skillfully between fateful venom and brazen buoyancy.

Orff’s is a very particular image of love: often exotic, sometimes erratic, frighteningly tempestuous, but never dull. York Opera realised his vision with aplomb.

Richard Powell