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Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Daily Telegraph, 2002)
APTLY contemplative for Good Friday, this performance of Bach's St John Passion had a similar cast of singers to the one that recently took part in Deborah Warner's staged and costumed version at English National Opera, with Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, Paul Whelan as Christus and Gillian Keith in the solo arias for soprano. There was the same conductor, too, in Stephen Layton, but the music's
Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - Music Web International, 2002)
This production is typical of the styles of both the ENO and the director, Deborah Warner, in that it concentrates on the interactions between characters as presented in the music, and that it arouses strong emotions on opposing sides. There are many who either will not attend such a piece out of principle, and they are probably the same people who booed with outrage at some of the images in her G
Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Organ, 2002)
The revival of Deborah Warner’s English National Opera production of J S Bach’s St John Passion on 15 March was both timely and welcome, though I must admit – despite the work’s theatrical inclinations born out of its through-composed style – that I was wary of such a production’s ability to deliver its inherent gravity as well as carry off the intimacy and beauty of Bach’s intentions. How wrong I
Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Times, 2002)
Deborah Warner's work in the lyric theatre divides audiences like that of no other director. She has provoked the most vicious booing Glyndebourne has ever known (Don Giovanni, 1994) and mocking laughter at the climax of her modern-dress Fidelio in the same theatre last year. And there are those who admire everything she does — I plead guilty. I suspect that the few people who scuttled from the Co
Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Observer, 2001)
St John v St Matthew The stern clarity of Bach's St John Passion makes it as compelling as any straight theatre. The subject matter may be inherently dramatic, but Bach's complete emotional and empathetic identification with the narrative raises it to new levels of intensity. Compact and sharply etched, oscillating from dark turbulence to radiant serenity, this 1723 setting of St John's Gospel has
Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Daily Telegraph, 2001)
The Good Friday performance of Bach's St John Passion at St John's, Smith Square, was distinguished by the assured singing of the choral ensemble Polyphony, and was enhanced by the eloquent interpretation of the role of the Evangelist by the tenor James Gilchrist, and by some heartfelt voicing of the meditative arias, particularly from the countertenor Robin Blaze. The Orchestra of the Age of Enli