Trauernacht, Johann Sebastian Bach (enoa production 2014)

TRAUERNACHT

Co-produced by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Dutch National Opera, the Wiener Festwochen and the Opéra national de Bordeaux

 

Musical direction : Raphaël Pichon

Stage direction : Katie Mitchell

Costumes and set design : Vicki Mortimer

Lights : James Farncombe

 

Father : Frode Olsen

Soprano : Aoife Miskelly

Mezzo-soprano : Eve-Maud Hubeaux

Tenor : Rupert Charlseworth

Bass : Andri Björn Robertsson

 

Within a family environment, four young adults are confronted to the paternal figure and the endless questions raised by the end of life.

 

Bach composed more than 200 cantatas, mainly for the church community in Leipzig where, in his role as Cantor, he was obliged to write one each week. Settings for voice and instruments of texts from the Bible or from pietist poetry, the works are profoundly dramatic as well as spiritual. This dramatic quality has inspired Katie Mitchell, the British director who has already staged the St Matthew Passion, and the conductor Raphaël Pichon, both fervent admirers of Bach. Together they explore the depths of these cantatas in order to celebrate their theatricality and living energy balanced against the omnipresence of death.

 

© Patrick Berger / Artcomart

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