Mark Padmore / Recenze

In the opening “An die Hoffnung,” the up-close acoustic of Reinberger Chamber Hall allowed for every nuance to shine through, with Padmore’s precise diction imbuing each stanza with a different feeling. And even without words of her own, Uchida remained fully engrossed in the emotions and phrasing of the music, often mouthing along with the German lyrics in the expressive “Resignation” and the stirring “Abendlied unterm gestirnten Himmel.”

The five-strong cast includes several of the work's creators. Christopher Purves again sings the Protector, baleful yet mellifluous except in some cruel interpolations for the baritone's head voice, while Barbara Hannigan, recently Mitchell's Mélisande (and Pelléas et Mélisande was one of Benjamin's avowed influences when planning this opera), returns in triumph as the passionate, wilful Agnès. She interprets the grotesque climactic transubstantiation with devastating simplicity. Mezzo Victoria Simmonds repeats her role as an Angel, joined on this occasion by no less a figure than tenor Mark Padmore as well as a handful of silent supernumeraries. All have been rigorously prepared for this revival by Mitchell and her admirable deputy, Dan Ayling. However, it's Iestyn Davies who raises the production to new heights. The countertenor makes his ROH role debut as the Boy, with an enigmatic presence that renders the harmonic eroticism of his duets with Hannigan all the more intriguing. Indeed, his melismatic delivery of the word 'merciful' suggests that he's a celestial visitor to a rotten world, come to give base mankind a bit of a kicking. If so, we could do with him now.

Like grizzly bears returning to prowl the tundra after months of hibernation, two of Britain’s most eminent interpreters of Bach’s sacred music went head to head on Good Friday. In The Oxford corner, John Eliot Gardiner brought his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists to the Sheldonian to stream Bach’s St John Passion. In the London corner, the atmospheric Battersea Arts Centre — its walls still marked by the fire that swept through it six years ago — was the venue from where Mark Padmore and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (in co-production with Marquee TV) decided to stream . . . guess what? Bach’s St John’s Passion.