Bach's Peasant Cantata

Amidale hosts a great Annual Back Festival, amazingly for a town with c. 25,000 residents. But we have a tremendous history of performing classical music and the Back Festival is one I never miss. This year there were 10 events over 4 days and only the 4th and 10th of those were freely open to the public. This blog focuses on the 4th event which was in, of all places, an arcade in the town centre now mostly containing office businesses. Only one of Bach's works was performed - the Peasant Cantata, which explores the vagaries of dealing with of all things, the Taxman. Here are my pictures and commnetary.

The commercial building where the performance was held has a long corridor leading to a lovely painting of Armidale's key buildings and sites. I elected to hear the performance from an upstairs balcony where a few imported seats were available.

Downstairs, the 6 or 7 members of the orchestra were positioned at the foot of a staircase which played an important role in the work. All the seating was imported for the event.

Here we are about to begin.

And then the two peasant singers descended from our level. I'd seen themwating close-by and wondered how members of the audience were dressed like this. Well they were great singers and played their role with great aplomb.

Then a bloke in a top hat emerged at the top of the staircase, presumably about to serve the peasants with a tax notice. By the way, as far as I could tell, the work was sung in German.

And here the peasnt couple are having sorted out their affairs, with the male peasant now wearing the top hat!

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There was wild applause at the end froma very happy audience. By the way, I presume that the guy standing on the right was the parent of one of two singers.

I tried several times to upload some of the singing, but couldn't get that to work.

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