Jonathan Miller's production of Bach's Matthäuspassion is justly famous, as the revival (or return) currently playing just this week at BAM confirms. Extraordinary musicianship: two choirs (each twelve singers) and two orchestras (each strings, reeds, and continuo with organ - all original instruments as far as I could tell) were arranged around a circle, with a single large table and a few chairs the only props. The separation of the two ensembles allowed the audience to hear the structure of the music better than I've ever heard it, and also added movement and drama. The members of the choirs sang by turns sitting, standing, gesticulating, and wandering around lost. The singers - and occasionally musical soloists - moved in the circle for arias. Everyone was in casual dress, so the production had a remarkable intimacy about it. And the music, and the story, soared.I've seen a Bach Passion performed in a sort of circle before - I heard the Johannespassion in Vienna a few years back, performed by assorted Leipzigers and directed from the center by Peter Schreier, who also sang the part of the Evanglist - amazing, and amazingly unified. But the Miller production (perhaps also because it was sung in English, new for me) seemed closer to what a congregation does on Palm (or Passion) Sunday...
I have to mention another recent Passion I've heard about. The tech-loving folks at Trinity Wall Street twittered the passion on Good Friday, a whole new spin on "Were you there when they crucified my lord?" Neither here nor there, if you ask me (but I admit that I remain a twitter unbeliever). Here are some of the tweets they sent out - from their website, in the jumbled order in which they appear there:
twspassionplayvia @_Peter_of_: is waiting in the courtyard of the High Priest Caiaphas. I ran scared when the officers came but I need to see how this ends.
twspassionplay via @ServingGirl: Darkness and earthquake. I heard the
curtain in the temple was torn in two. I wonder?
twspassionplay via @Pontius_Pilate: They want this done by nightfall. I sent my soldiers to break the dead men's legs. Are my hands clean of this?
twspassionplayvia @ServingGirl: is so tired. Caiaphas and the priests have been up all night questioning a man who claims to be the Messiah. And I wait on them.
The only tweet I can imagine working - catching the listener out as s/he goes on with whatever she was doing - they don't seem to have:
"The cock crew."
