OPENING CONCERT: Bachs St John Passion as a show trial

"What is truth?" says Pilate to Jesus in the mock trial to condemn Jesus to death. This sentence, two millennia old, is more relevant today than ever before and gives Bach's St John Passion an unexpected socio-political dimension. In our shared global present, legal systems are regularly used to exclude disagreeable people from further participation in society's political discourse with show trials.

The staged performance by the lautten compagney BERLIN, the SingFest Choral Academy Hong Kong and the Thüringer Bachwochen seeks answers to the question of individual truth and freedom in the face of an overpowering state apparatus in a contemporary visual language. In a concept that combines the historical and sacred music of Bach's St. John Passion with contemporary choreography and other theatrical elements, perspectives of European and Asian culture meet in an inspiring way. The European idea of historically informed performance practice corresponds with the modern view of a young Asian generation of artists for whom the deeper theme of the material - the insistence on individual truth and freedom in the face of an overpowering state apparatus, if necessary to the last consequence - is painfully and threateningly present in their daily political lives. Under the musical direction of Wolfgang Katschner (Berlin) and directed by Patrick Chiu (Hong Kong), the audience is invited to a surprising and equally sensual and intellectual artistic discourse on the present in view of the material.