WHATEVER one thought of it, Deborah Warner's staging of Bach's St John Passion for English National Opera drew wide attention to the latent dramatic potential of the Passion Story. Stephen Layton was the conductor at the ENO, and he is also the conductor of the now traditional Good Friday St John Passion at St John's Smith Square.
Layton's performances with his choral ensemble Polyphony have been of the highest calibre for some years now, and his own adroitly paced, dynamic accounts have always succeeded in capturing the sweep of the Drama. But this year the screw was turned just that bit tighter, while a fine cast, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, delivered a meticulously detailed reading.
This year's Evangelist was Ian Bostridge, and he carried the burden of the drama with an expressively flexible, animated rendering of the recitative, invoking scorn, anger and sympathy as required by the text. But also central to the thrust of the Drama was the contribution of Polyphony. The spitting consonants of the crowd choruses, powered by crisply articulated counterpoint and driving rhythms, all added up to a realistic, often frightening enactment of the story.
The dovetailing of choruses and recitative was crucial here, as was the choice of tempi for the former, and Layton once again showed masterly control of the overall structure. Chorales were generally brisk, dispensing with the old-fashioned pauses, but a slow tempo for Petrus, der nicht denkt zuruch brought Part I to a meditative conclusion, and elsewhere Pilate's doubts and the believer's certitude both had expressive breadth.
the death of Jesus was marked effectively by an unadorned cadence, two bass notes only, and a long silence (there was another at the very end of the performance, reflecting the devotional nature of the occasion). Also judicious was Layton's handling of the aria with chorus that follows the death of Christ: Mein teurer Heiland. Though in the kind of metre (12/8) that suggest a dance origin, this is a bass solo that can disrupt the meditative mood if care is not taken. Colin Campbell's measured singing, together with the gentle lilt imparted by Layton and an almost mystic chorus in the background, ensured that there was no such disruption.
Emma Kirkby, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and James Gilchrist were the fine soprano, alto and tenor soloists respectively, the latter impressing particularly with a passionate Ach, mein Sinn. Stephan Loges was an excellent Christ and Thomas Guthrie the Pilate. The various members of the OAE contributed to the exceptionally high standard of playing throughout.