Of beguiling beauty

The Christuskirche in Wittenberg is not a beauty, both externally and internally. But it can be used acoustically for concert events of a special kind, as happened on Saturday with "Cantatatanz" as part of the International Music Festival "Heaven on Earth" in Wittenberg. "Cantatatanz" is a sensually eroticizing presentation of Bach's sacred music, with which the Berlin theater company "Nico and the Navigators" (director and concept: Nicola Hümpel) claims its interpretive sovereignty to, with and about Bach, without ever questioning the musical statement, the tonal and artistic beauty of Bach's music. Grandiose dancer For the musical subject was provided by a wonderful Baroque ensemble (Mayumi Hirasaki, violin, Jakob David Rattinger, viola da gamba, Eugène Michelangeli, organ and harpsichord) together with countertenor Terry Wey, whose voice alone was beguiling. Wey and the dancer Yui Kawaguchi formed the gestural center of the interpretation and reinterpretation of the texts, which thereby perhaps cast doubt on the seriousness of their message, but not on the musical message. The center of the stage was formed by the podium-like raised chancel, on which four pews were draped, varying in their arrangement according to the situation. The gallery as well as the central and side aisles of the nave were also included. Here, Yui Kawaguchi, a dancing beauty, fluttering at times, always pleasing the eroticizing illustrations, had the effect of a butterfly. Lovely suggestions of seduction complemented the scenario. "Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh" (from BWV 508), began mysteriously Terry Wey together with Kawaguchi like a declaration of love to Anna Magdalena. In this, the dancing touches, the hands expressed a sensuality that could describe Bach's intimate relationship with his second wife Anna Magdalena. The singing had a heavenly attitude there. Vocal excellence They showed saucy flirtation, on the other hand, in "Widerstehe doch der Sünde, sonst ergreife dich ihr Gift," in which Terry Wey from the Oculi Cantata once again showcased his vocal excellence. The meeting of this troupe with the heavenly beauty of this almost otherworldly countertenor was a delight. The amused chuckling of the audience in view of this light-hearted spirituality, which gave the text a different counterpart, could not be avoided - and it should not. Splendid then was the scenic portrayal of sometimes rowdy, disinterested listeners during the performance of a violin chaconne played hauntingly by Mayumi Hirasaki. A splendid reflection of listeners as they can display collective ignorance. In the Goldberg Variations, Yui Kawaguchi showed not only acrobatic finesse in her dance as she gallantly arrived under the harpsichord to filigree open the laces of the harpsichordist Michelangeli's right shoe with her feet, then "undress" the foot and unleash in harmony a tête-à-tête for three feet, mind you - while playing the harpsichord. You know that "footsie" thing somehow. The lament "Ach dass ich Wassers g'nug hätte" by Johann Christoph Bach was also wonderful, disarmingly startling the audience out of its dreamy doze with a pithy, piercing cry from Michelangeli, as if to say, "Boy, it's enough"! Floating benches The brilliant illumination of the scenery (Ingo Nieländer, Fabian Bleisch) should not go unmentioned, which gave the whole a transcendence from the width into an infinite height: The pews literally floated one after the other from the horizontal into a column-like vertical, shiftable in their lightness, as if they wanted to show an interpretation in the infinite. Very well done, unfortunately in front of a small audience. Erhard Hellwig-Kühn, 10.07.2012

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