Last week, I had the immense pleasure of attending the U.S. premiere production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion by the Berlin Philharmoniker, co-presented by Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and Park Avenue Armory. The renowned Simon Rattle conducted the performance, which was directed by Peter Sellars. The Armory was staged to resemble the venue where the Berlin Philharmoniker plays in Germany; from my front-row side seat, I was directly behind choir seating. It was such a rush to be so close to the performers. The show played for two consecutive nights and received rave reviews from The New York Times. The performance was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. So much more than a classical musical performance, it was an edgy, modern, opera-like rendering of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The choir and performers moved around the stage and into the audience; it was far from a static performance. At one point, the choir in front of me suddenly stood up in a passionate scene, and I jumped, so engaged with the performance and moved by the music and acting. At nearly four hours long, the version kept audience members rapt the entire time. Also interesting was the venue, Park Avenue Armory, part palace/part industrial shed. It was the former home of the Seventh Regiment and is now a groundbreaking cultural institution. Since 2007, the Armory has hosted a series of immersive performances and installations. The Boy Choristers of St. Thomas Church made an appearance during the show; at intermission, I caught them coming back from Sprinkles Cupcakes, each holding an individual cupcake box, giddy from the sugar and excitement of the NYC streets. It was a cute, touching moment. When asked about the staging, Peter Sellars wrote, “My ritual ‘staging’ is primarily focused on Bach’s spatial imagination and the moral energies that his dialogues and juxtapositions release. Bach’s musical images are often vividly pictorial, but they also move beyond the visual, passing through the tactile, to find their redemptive and healing power in the act of making music itself, which is its own kind of spiritual path of concentration, shared attention and transcendent achievement.” — Kim Krol, managing editor