Chekhov's Mistress
Bach’s Passion My Passion
I had a meeting yesterday with someone I’ve never met and who happens to be going to see the Paul Goodwin conducted, Sir Jonathan Miller staged production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). I was describing the part, mid-way through, where Peter says “I know not the man” (this production is in English), and the Evangelist says “And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.” This is followed by an Aria accompanied by a single violin, playing plaintively Peter’s lament. As I was talking about this, I could feel the chills down my spine – the same feeling I get listening to it now.
Technorati Tags: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, BAM
When you read a great novel or experience music like this, it changes your life. It seeps into your consciousness and you’re never the same. Needless to say, I loved this concert. I never know how much I enjoy a concert for some time afterwards because sitting in the hall for nearly three hours, your ass hurts and you’re all too aware of the guy two seats down fidgeting and grunting. Still, it was about as fast of a three hours as I’ve ever experienced.
Miller’s production, which I’m going to a talk about tonight at BAM, is a casual staging – the performers wear jeans and such and they act out the roles in a subtle manner. The singers don’t stand behind music stands and belt it out, they sit around the stage and gesture their roles. They move, they hold their head in their hands, they look at one another and hold out their hands as though they were there. This is not how Bach meant it to be staged, but it is a beautiful interpretation of the drama underlying a profound score.
The most astonishing parts were when an instrumentalist would rise up out of his or her seat to accompany a singer. This dialogue between voice and instrument gave the aria an intensely personal feeling. That, if anything, is indicative of the entire production, which changed the way I listen to it now, on CD.
Anthony Tommasini (who was at the same performance as me) writing in the New York Times (“Bach’s Passions Are Revealed From Different Angles,” April 11), seems to agree:
In another unforgettable moment, Joshua South, a wholesome-looking young bass from the chorus taking the small role of the disciple Peter, having denied his savior three times, slumps in a chair, cradling his head in his hands, grief-stricken and ashamed. As he silently weeps, the countertenor Daniel Taylor, hovering over him, sings a comforting aria. Nearby, Jesus looks on, his body slouched in sadness.
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