WORKS

Johann Sebastian Bach
Duet from cantata ‘Erwählte Pleißen-Stadt’, BWV 216a
cantata ‘Es erhub sich ein Streit’, BWV 19

 

Georg Philipp Telemann
parts from Der neumodische Liebhaber Damon, oder die Satyrn in Arcadien, TWV 21:8

 

Just picture the sophisticated atmosphere of Baroque Leipzig: merchants from all over Europe, who dealt in gold, silver and luxury items from the Orient at the Leipziger Messe. The city’s culture flourished alongside its economy. Everything revolved around money, power and pleasure. In this theatrical programme, you can hear that little has actually changed in the past three centuries.

 

The Bach cantata Erwählte Pleißen-Stadt focuses on the two patrons of Leipzig: Apollo and Mercury (erudition and commerce).In a fine display of power, the cantata Es erhub sich ein Streit tells how Archangel Michael defeated the dragon. Alongside the cantatas, we are presenting excerpts from Der neumodische Liebhaber Damon, oder die Satyrn in Arcadien, a comic Singspiel by Telemann, which led to the closure of the Leipzig opera house, in 1720. In it, the satyr Damon tries to conquer a kingdom from which he has been banished. Like a ‘new-fangled lover’, he explores the bounds of sexuality and bourgeois propriety.