Bach’s great Passion settings weren’t intended to be staged: they were liturgical reflections, to be heard in church with a substantial sermon in the middle. But they work like opera. They engage their audience in powerful and moving drama. And the terms of that engagement couldn’t be more physical, immediate and overwhelming than they were this Easter when the Matthew Passion had a controversially adapted staging in the disused Campfield Market Hall in Manchester.
Produced by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers and directed by film-maker Penny Woolcock, it also involved an acting/singing cast of homeless people – for this was a project by Streetwise Opera, an organisation that aims to get helpless, often hopeless souls back on their feet through music.
Working with such people isn’t easy, as they can lead chaotic lives. But Streetwise has been notably successful: this was its biggest undertaking to date, televised on the BBC on Easter Sunday. A promenade performance, it moved around the cavernous, atmospheric market building with the audience in pursuit and getting mixed up in the action – drawn precariously into clashes between Pharisees, disciples, temple guards and people shouting “Crucify him.”
Several times I found myself within spitting distance (as it were) of Jesus. Or more properly the Jesuses, as there were eight of them – including women. Being such a major role, it was shared among the Streetwise cast. And though that may have been a compromise, it served to demonstrate an idea of collective suffering. Here were people who have known tough lives. That they should take turns to be Jesus, and with disregard of gender, might not win approval in all quarters but it was affecting – if unsettling.
Hearing the untutored voices of the Streetwise cast interact with the professionalism of The Sixteen was of course unsettling as well. It grated. And it meant that Bach’s score had to be cut down in length to make things manageable: yet another compromise. But the sheer vulnerability and self-exposure of their efforts had a sort of beauty in itself.
And for ears wanting perfection, The Sixteen delivered it – with a magnificent Evangelist, Joshua Ellicott, who threw himself into the action with an urgency and dynamism that was thrilling.
This unorthodox Bach Passion, though, was truly a collective effort. And its grand finale emphasised the fact, with an additional Resurrection chorus (Passions generally don’t get that far into the story) commissioned from Sir James MacMillan – written for the pros and amateurs to sing on equal terms together.
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