Making Music Visible: Peter Sellars' St John Passion From Berlin
Forbes reviews Distinguished Professor Peter Sellars's production of St John Passion
According to Forbes, Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance Distinguished Professor Peter Sellars's production of St John Passion "forces us a little out of our comfort zone… which is good."
"The St John Passion performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle (with a stellar cast) wouldn’t be an unusual thing, even in times where fewer and fewer big romantic orchestras perform early music that has become the provenance of Historically Informed Performance groups. But as the Berlin Radio Chorus assembles – then lies down – on the blank space of Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall (space the much reduced and original-instrument-studded baroque core of the Berlin Phil. does not need), one begins to suspect that something is different. Or, more likely, the watcher of this DVD/Blu-ray set already knows that they are watching Peter Sellars’ staging of the St John Passion.
Sellars returns to Bach after having already treated the St Matthew Passion similarly (with the same cast, also recorded and issued on the Berlin Philharmonic’s in-house label) and then having been cured of his ignorance regarding the John Passion (Sellars thought it second-rate Bach) by Rattle. But wait: A staging of a Bach Passion? What is that – and is it necessary? Firstly, it’s not so much a staging than it is a visualization, which I hope will become clear in this review. And secondly: Yes!
A usual Bach Passion usually takes place before a concert audience. A chorus at the back, an orchestra before them, and a row of soloists that lines up in front of those, often behind their music stands with the score. The concert starts. The music – we know it well – is beautiful. We are reasonably moved. But really, this setting means that the Passion is ‘sung unto us’… we are recipients, passive vessels, and we hear the music and notice fairly little of the text with which we are far less familiar. Even if we have on occasion or by accident opened the New Testament on the relevant pages at one point or another."— Jens F. Laurson, June 21, 2016
Read the full article at the Forbes website.