The cantata is based on old poems about wine, women and love.

The cantata is based on old poems about wine, women and love.

PORTLAND – For the first time, the Choral Art Society and Portland Ballet Company will join forces as they present Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” Saturday, March 20, in Merrill Auditorium.

The performance will begin at 8 p.m.

With more than 200 singers, dancers and an orchestra, this represents Portland’s first full-scale production of “Carmina Burana” in recent memory.

Andrei Bossov, former star of the Kirov Ballet in Russia, will choreograph Portland Ballet Company’s sensual production of “Carmina Burana.”

Bossov currently directs the Bossov Ballet Company in Pittsfield. Robert Russell, conductor of the Choral Art Society, will be the music director and conductor for “Carmina Burana” and Portland Ballet’s Eugenie O’Brien will be the artistic director.

Three soloists, Andrea Mathews, Martin Lescault and Philip Lima, will perform with voices from the Choral Art Society’s Masterworks Chorus and the University of Southern Maine Chorale. The lyrics will be sung in the original Latin and German.

The text is a collection of songs about wine, women and love, based on poems in Latin, Old German and Old French from a manuscript dated 1280. The famous “O Fortuna” (Wheel of Fortune) opens and closes “Carmina Burana.”

First performed in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1937, “Carmina Burana” is a cantata with optional dance in 25 movements for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists; boys’ choir; choir; and orchestra.

Portland Ballet, which was founded in 1980, appears throughout the year in Portland, Lewiston and Ogunquit, performing full-length classics as well as contemporary choreography.

Founded in 1972, the Choral Art Society now has more than 150 singers. All singers are skilled amateurs, selected by audition.

FMI: call the Choral Art Society office, (207) 828-0043, or Portland Ballet, (207) 772-9671; or go online to www.portlandballet.org or www.choralart.org.

For tickets, call PortTix, (207) 842-0800 or go to www.porttix.com. Prices range from $20 to $55.