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Bach: St John Passion with ENO (Concert Review - Time Europe, 2000)
The English National Opera brings Bach to vivid dramatic life Against a pale yellow background the chorus appears in silhouette, standing in rows. On the back wall of the stage is projected the face of a dying man. As the orchestra and chorus launch into the troubled opening music, one spotlight moves among the singers. It lingers on individuals, for this production of Bach's St. John Passion high
Bach: St John Passion with ENO (Concert Review - Opera, 2000)
Seeing the light It may not be what Bach intended, but ENO's St John Passion is a unique event. The live lamb at the close is a mistake. Nothing wrong with the image - borrowed from Zurbarán's Agnus Dei - but the little beast's pitiful bleating provoked laughter when most of us were sitting awe-struck by Bach's grief-laden music and Deborah Warner's otherwise scrupulously reverential staging of hi
Bach: St John Passion with ENO (Concert Review - The Independent, 2000)
Jesus Christ Opera Star Concerts of Bach’s St John Passion are familiar Eastertide events. Now the crucifixion is being staged at English National Opera. Can the director Deborah Warner retain its sacred heart? Each Good Friday for the past five years (and the same this Easter – the 250th anniversary of JS Bach's death) Stephen Layton has conducted Bach’s St John Passion at St John’s, Smith Square
Bach: St John Passion with ENO (Concert Review - The Times, 2000)
What is truth? THE big question, as posed by Richard Morrison earlier in the week, is if those in the audience at the Coliseum on Wednesday had a religious experience, whether they realised it or not. I should hate to have to define the words "religious experience", but have no hesitation in saying that those present realised that something out of the ordinary was going on. More than two thousand
Bach: St John Passion with ENO (Concert Review - The Guardian, 2000)
Just three elements make the new show worth catching: an intensely moving portrayal by Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, finely structured conducting from Stephen Layton, and, in the final moments of the performance, one of the most exquisite moments of kitsch to be seen in a British opera house for a long time. Andrew Clements
The Guardian - The Week in Classical, April 2023
A further review from The Guardian of Polyphony's St John Passion at St John's Smith Square with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Stephen Layton: "...behind them all, rock-solid, alert to every nuance in the drama, stood Polyphony, diction crisp, phrasing meticulous. Simply superb." St John Passion ★★★★★ And so to JS Bach himself. Print deadlines are unforgiving things and co