This post, for Maundy Thursday, is in a series for Lent to Easter, 2021 Passion dramas in the Lutheran tradition, designed for performance in church during Holy Week, generally adhere to the Biblical text of one of the four Gospels, much of it sung by a narrator: in this method, actual persons (Judas, Caiphas, Pilate, […]
Tag: scene
Love in the depths of despair
Opera is often about love — its pleasures, its pain and its predicaments. Some of the most special moments are the rare duet-arias, where the solo honours are shared equally between two virtuoso singers. Typically the two characters, having fallen in love (at first sight, of course), express their happiness together and/or desire for each […]
Jesus alone (Holy Week, Wednesday)
For Wednesday of Holy Week. This is the fourth post in a series for Holy Week and Easter Day, 2020. Isaiah 53:3: He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.Isaiah 50:6: He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: […]
Get in the scene! (Holy Week, Monday)
For Monday of Holy Week. This is the second post in a series for Holy Week and Easter Day, 2020. With this intense 10-minute opening movement of the Passion according to St John (Leipzig, Good Friday, 7 April 1724), Bach brings us — forcefully pushes us — into the drama of the events that led […]